Culture of Death

Culture of Death
A response to "Will Babies with Down Syndrome Just Disappear?"

I remember when my wife was pregnant. We were excited, terrified, and had no clue what was going on. We got pregnant by "accident," meaning I didn't think it was that easy. We had just moved to Waco and I was about to begin seminary when we found out. I was having trouble finding a job and we couldn't get insurance, so after a few weeks we tried medicaid. (This is such an incredible blessing) After calling a few places and being rejected (doctors don't like medicaid in Waco) we tried Waco Women's Health, which turned out to be perfect. My wife wanted a woman and the only woman was a midwife. She was great. She always answered our questions and absolutely cared about us and our baby. I remember when it came time for the test to check for Downs. There are actually two, the first one is in the first trimester to check for irregularities. I was hesitant because first I didn't think they would find anything, and second I was concerned with the moral aspect of knowing. Abortion would never be an option for us. I didn't say anything but she must have picked up on what I was thinking. She told us that the test is great looking at the risk factors. She said there are a lot of false positives, but if a patient tests positive, they know to keep a closer eye on the pregnancy.

Later, in the third trimester, they did another test. The midwife explained this one is more accurate than the first and it is a good indicator for future treatment with a positive result. The test begins with a finger-prick and smearing a lot of blood on a card. If it is a positive result, meaning there appears to be a higher risk, they will take a sample of amniotic fluid. This does pose some risk to the baby, but not much.

Dr. Mohler's concern that the test will could be used as a litmus for abortion is valid, but that isn't the only use for the test. What if we knew we were going to have a Down Syndrome baby? We would have read every book we could find on the subject, we would found a doctor to treat the baby, and we would have been just a little more prepared for parenting this child. (As it turned out, our daughter was born healthy and wide-eyed. I remember her ripping off the thermometer under the heat lamp after her bath, the machine kept beeping and getting hotter. She's still doing stuff like that 17 months later.)

So the test really is a good thing, but like anything else can be abused.

I agree with Mohler that we are quickly becoming a "Culture of Death." In fact, I would take that a step further, American culture is a "Culture of Death." We claim re value human life and dignity but we train people to kill in war. We throw people in prison not to reform them, but to keep them out of sight. We execute prisoners in the name of justice. We oppress the poor by keeping them in substandard housing, low paying jobs, and dependent on welfare. Then we are supposed to be shocked that people don't want to keep an unborn baby? We are a "Culture of Death!"