A child of grace

Several days ago Mary, the President of World Youth Alliance, told me about a conversation she was having with two doctor friends of hers. They were both obstetricians, meaning they worked mostly with women who were pregnant. Over the course of their conversation, they began to speak about children with disabilities, specifically down-syndrome and autism. Both doctors agreed that when they had patients whose babies were shown to have either of these conditions in the womb, they advised the mothers to terminate the pregnancy and try again to have a normal child.

They went on to say that they had seen the difficult lives that such children lead, their unhappiness or the strain they put on the family. It is better not to have them, both men concluded.

When Mary told me of the conversation, it reminded me of an article I had recently read by a personal hero of mine, a writer and scholar named Tony Esolen (who will be giving the keynote address at WYA's DDD Conference in September). The article from Touchstone Magazine was so powerful and compassionate, about his son who is autistic. To think that many such children are not given the chance to live at all because of our so called compassion.

Mary told me both doctors were good men, well educated, well meaning. But what does it say about we normal people that we think those not like us would rather die than be different? That we have nothing to learn, and they nothing to give. I hope this article will make us think twice about such things. Here it is:

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=20-01-018-v

-Casey