The New Aristocracy of Human Dignity

S. Michael Craven, Christian Post guest columnist, writes a insightful piece entitled “What is Normal” in today’s Christian Post.

It’s about human dignity, Down Syndrome, disabilities, and a new comparative basis for human dignity, one divorced from Judeo-Christian foundations.

Here’s something to pique your interest.

Recently, while wandering through my local grocery, I turned the corner, heading up the cereal aisle. I had no more walked ten feet when I caught the attention of a stranger – a young man in his mid-twenties – walking toward me. Upon seeing me, his face lit up and a smile spread from ear to ear. I smiled in return, his pace quickened and he marched straight over to me and with a welcoming voice said, "Hello, how are you?" I stopped, we exchanged a few friendly words and then after a hardy “goodbye,” he moved on to greet the next person similarly.

Within a moment, an elderly couple followed, keeping an eye on the young man who, I quickly surmised was their son. The grinning mother said, "He's very friendly!" I laughed, that was an understatement! I stood there silent for a moment, my spirit energized by this unusual and yet most human of encounters.

This young man was very different from me as I don't normally greet the strangers I meet each day in such a friendly and familiar manner. His congenial nature was heartwarming and he seemed to have a sincere appreciation for other people simply because they were - well - people. This man was, simply stated, better than I. Oh, he was different; he had Down syndrome but as a human being, he was still better than I. He loved without reservation or condition; he did not judge others based on what they looked like or what they were wearing; he understood the gift of human touch and kindness and was ready to share this gift with everyone he could. He was not the least bit self-conscious much less self-absorbed. There was no guile in this man. He was far closer to innocence than those of us who are "normal."

Read the rest of the article here.

[image source: This is a photo of Kayla. You may see more pictures of Kayla and read about her on her Mom's blog, Big Blueberry Eyes.]

Juli’s Choice: A Life Worth Taking Is Also A Life Worth Mourning

The New York Press features a column entitled Juli’s Choice with this intro:

After Her Doctor Told Her Of A Genetic Abnormality In Her Growing Fetus, JULI STEADMAN CHARKES Confronted A Pregnant Woman’s Worst Nightmare

Read the story and tell me you can’t relate to this woman’s fears and nightmares after being told she was carrying a child diagnosed with Trisomy.

But there’s at least one very big lie contained in the account. And it cost the life of a child—some precious human being created by God and in His image—and the wonderful plan of God for that child’s life.

Nobody has the right to purposefully take another human being’s life—under ANY circumstances. I’m sorry, but if you don’t believe that, you are on a very slippery slope and you are holding to an ideology which cannot be labeled Christian—at least by the doctrines of Christianity for the last nineteen centuries or so.

You're certainly on the ground of moral relativism, to which I referred yesterday.

Furthermore, doctors make mistakes and misdiagnoses all the time and there are more than sufficient examples of these in regard to the results of amniocentesis.

Furthermore, ask someone like Barbara at Mommy Life what she has to say about being the mother of several children with Trisomy.

Let’s put aside all the feelings for a moment. Can that be done, or is it not possible in our time? Let’s look at other factors, not the least of which is faith. Yes, faith in God and His divine plan and purposes.

No child’s life should hang in the balance because of the emotional reactions and fears of parents or doctors.

Juli says in her account “A life worth taking is also a life worth mourning.”

Explain that twisted logic to me and I can explain to you how modern society has found another perfectly acceptable rationale to salve its conscience after carrying out a plain and simple murder.

The amazing thing about God’s grace is that even when we conduct such evil against God and our fellow man, God still permits us a future. Notice that God blessed Juli and her husband with not one but two new children in the womb.

Was that a reward for what she did? Was it a message from God that she did the right thing?

Not on your life.

I pray Juli comes to see the true horror of her “choice” and finds repentance for her sin before she meets God. I pray Christians will be forthright—yet loving and compassionate—in helping her see it. The sooner it happens the sooner will the next child be safe from a similar search and destroy mission.

Chuck Colson: Loving Our Children

Colson offers a Christian corrective for muddled thinking—from the Darwinian camp—on the subject of “our culture’s undeclared war on people with Down syndrome.”

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What Would Darwin Advise?

For the past few years, I’ve been telling Christian Post readers about our culture’s undeclared war on people with Down syndrome. Earlier this year, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women, regardless of age, undergo amniocentesis. Obviously that’s to put them under increasing pressure to abort the child if a genetic defect is detected.

I thought that I heard every possible argument for and against this barbarism, but I was wrong. Apparently, in addition to asking themselves “what would Jesus do?” women should ask themselves “what would Darwin advise?”

But Dr. Frank Boehm of Vanderbilt Medical Center has doubts about doctors’ ability to “adequately counsel patients” about having a child with Down syndrome. Properly counseling patients requires painting a balanced picture of life with such a child. Boehm points out that while there are “considerable challenges . . . there are also many positive [aspects] as well.” Boehm cites his own experience with his grandson, who has Down syndrome.

Through his grandson, Boehm has come to appreciate the often “unappreciated” “richness” in these children’s lives. He sees how their parents feel that their child offers “love, affection, happiness, laughter and joy” as well as teaching “compassion and acceptance.”

Boehm’s position is a welcome addition to the debate over the treatment of children with Down syndrome. But part of Boehm’s argument has me scratching my head. He ended his piece by saying that not telling patients about these “positive aspects of life” would constitute a failure to “understand the evolutionary process.”

I don’t get it. What does evolutionary theory have to tell us about the “positive aspects” of genetic defects? More importantly, what does it tell us about the human capacity for altruism and compassion—the very things Dr. Boehm is advocating? The answer is: Nothing.

Dr. Boehm is a classic example of muddled thinking.

Darwin insisted that natural selection would “rigidly destroy” any variation—such as Down syndrome—that would hurt its possessor “in the struggle for life.” As much as we love kids with Down syndrome, it’s impossible to imagine how Down syndrome helps people in “the struggle for life.” Quite the contrary: it’s a variation that, if Darwin were right, should have been “rigidly destroyed” a long time ago.

And clearly evolutionary theory can’t explain the compassion and love that parents shower on their Down syndrome children. If evolutionary theory is right, then the time, resources and energy it takes to raise a child with special needs could be put to better uses: such as raising children who are more likely to strengthen the species.

The late philosopher David Stove, who was an atheist, called Darwinian explanations for altruism and compassion “confused” and a “slander” against man. They miss the obvious fact that man “is sharply distinguished from all other animals by being in fact hopelessly addicted to altruism.”

The “addiction” that Stove talked about is not the product of evolution. It is the product of being made in the image of God.

[source]

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More insight on the war against Down Syndrome children here. The Mommy Life blog carries excellent postings—she should! She’s a Mom of 12, with four sons who have Down Syndrome. This link will take you to her archives on Down Syndrome.

Michelle Asks “Is A Child With Down’s Really Such A Bad Thing?”

Michelle at BigBlueberryEyes writes about Kayla, her Down’s Syndrome child. It’s a moving post.

Statistics point to the fact that 90 percent of women who find out prenatally that their baby has Down syndrome “terminate” [weasel word for murder in the womb] their pregnancy.

Here’s a glimpse into Michelle’s heart, but by all means read the entire posting:

I would rather chose life for my child, even if it means finding out in the end that she can't live on her own, and will only be capable of being a bagger, because at least I will have had the opportunity to know my child, to watch her grow and learn and play and be whoever she is going to be. I would rather have this real person to hold in my arms and laugh and cry with. I would rather have my child here to celebrate birthdays and holidays and first days of school and milestones. I would rather have the joy and privilege of raising her and molding her into a wonderful human being, despite what her IQ might be.

I would rather all that, then to not chose life, terminate my pregnancy - and never know all the possibilities and potential she has to show me; then to never know this child of mine...and when you terminate your pregnancy you're not giving your child a chance ... a chance at life ... a chance to show you who they are and who they can become ... a chance to make a real difference.

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"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

Mother Teresa