I'm a man, so I'm not supposed to have an opinion about abortion. Instead, let me tell you about the wonderful morning I had yesterday, taking my 2-year-old daughter Dot to speech therapy and physical therapy. Her major interest right now is reciting the colors (which she does in English and American Sign Language, yet) and reciting the names of her boyfriends in her early start toddler class ("Edgerrrrr! Androooo!") and informing me they wear "backpacks." She waved at everyone she saw that day with a cheery "Hello!" and smiled a gap-tooth smile under her mop of red hair. They smiled and waved back. What a cutie!
Oh, sorry — she has Down Syndrome. Reboot. Let me try again:
Bringing her to term was obviously a big mistake! What a tragedy SHE is! How inconvenient for everyone involved! We can't possibly get her into advanced placement classes, or an Ivy League college! What'll we say to our neighbors? Better off just to make the "hard decision" to get rid of her. Ignore my first paragraph. Just forget I said anything ...
The sad fact is that the decision to abort a child with Downs Syndrome is not that hard in our current society. It is very counter cultural to accept a prenatal diagnosis of Downs Syndrome or any other disability and proceed with the pregnancy. The right to an abortion has become a “duty” to abort. I mean really, isn’t it inconsiderate to bring a child into the world that will be such a societal burden? Think of all the things we could accomplish with the perfect kids if we didn’t have to waste all that money on special services for defective children.
The blinding arrogance of such an attitude is astonishing. Who among us is really so wise and all-knowing that he can judge whose life is worthy and whose is not? I suppose if you are operating under the premise that this earthly life is all there is it is easy to aim for earthly perfection. But if your view stretches into the eternal, you must turn such judgment over to God. Only He has the big picture on the plan for salvation and the role each individual created in His image is called to play. That “hard decision” about who lives and who dies is His to make, not ours.
2 comments:
Wonderful post. I dealt with these questions (from others) about which lives are worth living when my mother remained in a state of advanced Alzheimer's for over a decade. Thank you for defending the precious and sacred gift of life.
I personally feel the world needs more cognitively disbaled people, not less. They often bring a simple innocence, a spontaneous charm, that many of us "normal" people lack. The more "normal" our society becomes the more arrogant we become.
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