The culture of death strikes again

For the first time the other night, I experienced firsthand the effects of such supposedly "beneficial" testing. I work as a tech on a labor & delivery/postpartum/pediatrics floor, and two nights ago one of the obstetricians who delivers at our hospital admitted one of his patients to our care--a 21-week termination of a baby likely to have Downs' Syndrome. Many of the nurses refused to take her as a patient, but one was willing. I didn't know she was there (I had heard she would be coming, but thought it was a few days earlier) until the nurse asked me to come and take pictures of the baby (at the request of the parents). She was just under a foot long, and weighed almost a pound. She was a beautiful little girl, absolutely perfect. I never met her mother, as I had been assigned to a different hall that night, but when I was holding the baby I couldn't help but wonder how on earth anyone could ever do such a thing. We have had stillborns and miscarriages before... but why was I standing there holding a dead baby girl that had been alive and well in her mother's womb just the day before? Not because the baby was sick, or miscarried... but because her own mother decided to kill her. That is simply incomprehensible to me. "Culture of death," indeed.

Anyhow, please pray for this little girl, for her parents and all others who are tempted to kill their own children simply because they may not be convenient, or fit someone's definition of "perfect".

Joyelle, prayers said--for the little girl, and for the mom and dad who will live with their terrible decision for the rest of their lives. There are no winners in that deal. They may not realize it now, but I suspect they will.

We will build the master race. No one will stand in our way. Zeig, Heil!!!!

So all that was thought to be wrong with the baby was Down's Syndrome? Sometimes I read about parents whose babies are certain to have very short lives who arrange for this sort of induced labor abortion, and while I know what they are doing is wrong it is easier to see how they believe it is right, and how they believe that they are simply having their baby early and saying goodbye sooner when it was going to happen anyway. I don't understand the parents wanting pictures of a baby who could have lived but wasn't welcome, though. Things are just really getting strange (and sad.)

Terry, thanks.

Davey's mommy, Down's Syndrome (suspected Down's Syndrome at that--the amnio and the ultrasound conflicted) was the only reason they aborted. And per the nurses who were present that night, she didn't even look like a Down's Syndrome baby. Sadly, this wasn't incredibly surprising. My mother is a Labor & Delivery nurse and worked for a couple years as a case manager for high-risk pregnancies. She had quite a few patients during that time period who were told that their baby would be born with Down's Syndrome and were strongly encouraged to abort, but who had chosen to carry their pregnancy through. In many of the cases, their babies were born completely normal.

The fact that the parents wanted pictures of her kind of perplexed me too. But then, if they, like many people today, are of the opinion that it would be inhumane or unfair or incompassionate to "force a child to grow up with so many difficulties," they might have convinced themselves that they were doing the right thing for her and were sparing her from a life of misery. This is what happens when we treat life itself as a choice, and not as a gift. I just don't get it.

I think it's okay to give parents warning and let them get used to the idea but it chills my blood when it's used as a "search and destroy" test.