Working Wednesday: Research

Coming back from a vacation that spanned the holidays, I had quite a bit of email to absorb. I thought I'd share with you a few news stories that surfaced while I was away. They reflect the kinds of things that I collect and later write about in this space.

• Fire Marshall Closes Abortion Clinic Someone broke into Women's Medical Services of Muskegon on or around Christmas day. When police responded, they found conditions so deplorable -- and unrelated to the break-in -- that they called in building inspectors and the fire marshall, who deemed the facility unsafe for occupation and shut it down. Operation Rescue notes they have additional information about "serious violations" at the clinic, but are keeping mum for now. Apparently, someone who formerly worked in the clinic has provided evidence. Citizens for a Pro-Life Society has been keeping its eye on the clinic's doctor, Robert L. Alexander, MD, for many years; they report he has a "troubled and checkered medical career." You can take part in a poll that asks whether this clinic should reopen or not. UPDATE from Operation Rescue listing some of the abuses. TV station reports that clinic will not reopen.

• The Bioarchaeology Of Care. Don't be turned off by the academic-sounding title. It's a fascinating story about the discovery of the remains of a severely disabled pre-historic man in Vietnam. What's so interesting about that? The evidence shows he "survived from early adolescence into adulthood completely paralyzed from the waist down and with very limited use of his upper body." He had to have been "[d]ependent on others for meeting his most basic needs . . . only possible because of the high-quality, dedicated, and time-consuming care he received." That's a revelation to archaeologists, and perhaps a challenge to evolutionists since it belies "survival of the fittest." The author of the article notes that, "Looking after those who are unable to look after themselves is a behavior that defines what it is to be human." Here's a New York Times digest version of the article: Ancient bones that tell a story of compassion. 

Maddalena Douse with her
mum and dad.

• Scissors save premature baby's life. In the UK, babies born weighing less than a pound are not considered viable and are left to die. Little Maddalena Douse's life was spared, however, because someone left a pair of scissors on the scale during her weigh-in, causing it to tilt in her favor. She's home now, after being on a ventilator for six months, and is expected to be perfectly healthy.

• Finally, this also from the UK: A 'dad' is tenth most popular Christmas list request for children. That despite the idea that any kind of family will do. According to The Christian Institute, only 14% of children in the UK are born into families where dad is married to mum. One-third of American children (15 million) are being raised without a father (compared to nearly five million who live without a mother).

Postscript: Assisted Suicide’s Dangerous Illusion of Control. It never fails. I hit 'publish' and then something new comes along that prompts me to add to my post. I'd read this article about elder abuse earlier in the day, then received a related email from a concerned individual. She wrote to tell me about the group National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse. If you know someone who's vulnerable to this type of abuse, pay attention!

I guess if this post is about anything, it's taking care of life. If even "neolithic" societies could do it, so can we!

Working Wednesday: What is LIFT?

We've mentioned LIFT in the previous two posts, and now it's time to say more about it.

What is LIFT? LIFT is a ministry of compassionate care to the chronically or terminally. Through LIFT, volunteers are trained to visit individuals and provide non-medical assistance. The circle of care also extends to loved ones who are often the individual's primary caregivers and who face pressures that can be physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining.

LIFT volunteers report to a Care Coordinator and meet regularly with each other for encouragement and support. They help their care recipients by ministering in simple, creative, and practical ways:

• Run errands
• Walk the dog
• Help with housework
• Bake a cake
• Bring fresh flowers
• Read the Bible out loud
• Shovel snow
• Help with correspondence
• Do yard work
• Drive patient to the doctor's office
• Be a friend
• Listen
• Bring encouragement

LIFT is an ideal outreach of the local church -- to church members and people in the community. It also sends important messages to the world at-large: 

1. Human life is sacred
2. God is sovereign over life
3. Jesus Christ conquered sin and death
4. God's people serve others through compassion ministries

Learn more:

What is LIFT? from Life Matters Worldwide

Related:
LIFT on our website
LIFT FAQs
The messages LIFT sends
How not to flinch in the face of suffering

Postscript: An award-winning movie -- Amour -- advocates euthanasia and shows why ministries such as LIFT are needed.

Pat Robertson strikes again

This time, he demeans adoption and special-needs kids:

Read Russell Moore's response: Pat Robertson vs. the Spirit of Adoption --

[I]f you want to see the gospel of Christ, the gospel that has energized this church for two thousand years, turn off the television. The grinning cartoon characters who claim to speak for Christ don’t speak for him. Find the followers who do what Jesus did. Find the people who risk their lives to carry a beaten stranger to safety. Find the houses opened to unwed mothers and their babies in crisis. Find the men who are man enough to be a father to troubled children of multiple ethnicity and backgrounds.

And find a Sunday School class filled with children with Down Syndrome and cerebral palsy and fetal alcohol syndrome. Find a place where no one considers them “weird” or “defective,” but where they joyfully sing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”

Someone, please tell Mr. Robertson to step aside. 

Love is the Antidote to Prenatal Eugenic Cleansing

Love is the Antidote to Prenatal Eugenic Cleansing | First Things: Unconditional love cuts against the current cultural zeitgeist of our times. Consider: About 90 percent of fetuses testing for genetic conditions such as Down and dwarfism are terminated to the moral support, if not outright cheering, of much of society. It may seem harsh to say, but it is true nonetheless: We are in the midst of a great eugenic cleansing in which diagnosed imperfection often favors abortion.

There may even be overt pressure on parents to terminate from friends, family, and the medical community. The anti “defectives” message is vividly clear. . . .

A cultural expectation is forming in which people believe they not only have a fundamental right to have a baby, but the concomitant right to have the baby they want—and by any technological means necessary. . . .

We claim to extol diversity and tolerance more than at any other time in human history—as we unleash a merciless reproductive pogrom to eradicate imperfection from the human condition.

That’s a crying shame. If I were to pick one human attribute to extol above all others, it wouldn’t be high intelligence, good looks, or athletic prowess—the usual targets for human improvement. Rather, I believe the most crucial human attribute is our capacity to love.

Editor: This is so good. I wish I'd written it.

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Journalist says we should stop "Disneyfying" Down syndrome

Daily Mail: 41-year-old Samantha Brick is desperate for a child and has undergone at least one cycle of IVF. But if she were to become pregnant, and if that child were found to have Down syndrome, she would have an abortion. Here's her reasoning:

'My first attempt at IVF failed and my husband I have discussed in depth and at length whether we could keep a baby diagnosed with Down's Syndrome.

'I live in France,I know that people there don't have the same support, I would have to send my baby to a centre on Monday morning and then welcome them back on Friday night.

'I already have a large family including ageing in laws with their own problems and so it's not just myself that I have to think about it is everyone else in the family and what the impact would be on them.'

'I actually think it would be selfish to HAVE that baby because of the impact on the local health services, the cost of raising that child and the support it would need.'

'My family and I have between us worked with hundreds of people with Downs Syndrome. Let's stop 'Disneyfying' this genetic condition and ensure families, and potential parents, can debate and discuss and have the full unbiased facts of exactly what they're getting into.'

Editor: Could she have said anything more offensive? And I'd like to know how Down syndrome has been "Disneyfied." 

IVF pregnancies terminated because of Down's syndrome

IVF pregnancies terminated because of Down's syndrome - Telegraph: Figures reportedly show that the genetic disorder was the most commonly given reason for terminating a pregnancy achieved [in the UK] through IVF-type treatment in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available.

Editor: This article is somewhat confusing, because it talks about babies conceived in test tubes (IVF) but tested during pregnancy. There's no mention of preimplantation genetic testing (PGD) which is routinely done with IVF to screen out abnormalities. In other words, defective embryos are discarded (I thought) so none are implanted in a woman's uterus. This story is disheartening, but an abortion prior to implantation is still an abortion. And genetic testing prior to implantation also yields "designer babies."

Related: Disabled children often victimized more

Disability and the divorce rate

Daniel Vance: "In my first decade involved in disability issues, I repeatedly heard people claim that marriages involving parents of children with disabilities had a divorce rate of more than 75 percent. . . . After reviewing the literature, I found no credible evidence married couples raising children with disabilities experienced that high of a divorce rate. . . . I guess if you speak untruths long enough, people will believe it."

Disability and the Gospel: How God Uses Our Brokenness to Display His Grace

Amazon.com: Disability and the Gospel: How God Uses Our Brokenness to Display His Grace (9781433530456): Michael S. Beates, Joni Eareckson Tada: Books: Michael Beates’s concern with disability issues began nearly 30 years ago when his eldest child was born with multiple profound disabilities. Now, as more families like Michael’s are affected by a growing number of disorders and difficulties ranging from autism to food allergies, the need for programs and paradigm shifts is greater than ever. Beates thus seeks to motivate churches to pursue ministry to children and adults with developmental disabilities. He works through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability to develop helpful principles for believers and churches, teaching them first to embrace their own brokenness and then to embrace those who are more physically and visibly broken.

Martin Luther and Childhood Disability in 16th Century Germany: What did he write? What did he say?

Independent Living Institute: Martin Luther's views on disability have been widely misapprehended and caricatured on the basis of a few items in a dubious edition of shorthand notes of conversations. His written and spoken arguments across 30 years (1517-1546) concerned with childbirth and infancy, devils, superstitions, changelings, prodigies, folly, disablement, deafness, participation in Christian sacraments, and exegesis of Biblical texts on disabled people, give a more reliable and interesting guide to his views, in the context of Luther's personal involvement with sickness, disability and practical care. Historically, European social and religious developments contained a broader range of views on disability than is commonly supposed, with some challenges for 21st century thought and practice.

The Weaker Parts

The Weaker Parts | Dr. Georgia Purdom's Blog: Paul says, “Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable” (1 Corinthians 12:22). Think about that in relation to those with disabilities: those we consider “weak” are indispensable in the body of Christ. Paul, an amazingly intelligent and gifted man, considered those who are “weak” to be indispensable. Not just “a good part of the body that we’re happy to have along,” but indispensable. Meaning the Body of Christ can’t function without them.

Video: The Sanctity of Life of Those With Disabilities

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Abortion or a baby born with disability: What choice would you make?

Abortion or a baby born with disability: What choice would you make? | Mail Online: It’s the news every mother-to-be dreads: that their baby faces a life of terrible disability. But would YOU make the same choice as Sara?

Editor: Sadly, this mother and father didn't hear any positive messages about their child's condition (spina bifida), or learn of any resources available to help, such as they could have found at BeNotAfraid.net. 

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A University Professor’s Response to Sanctity of Life and Disability

Lausanne Global Conversation:  A response to Joni Eareckson Tada’s "Sanctity of Life and Disability."

Tyranny consists in the universal desire to dominate beyond one’s own station. . . . Our freedom becomes tyrannical when it is removed from the Christian tradition, for it is the tradition which gave us our freedom in the first place. We have no notion of freedom apart from this tradition. We can’t pick and choose at will because it is not our place to do so. For when we do, we become tyrants, picking and choosing who may live and who must die!

There is nothing wrong with the desire to have a child. . .  The problem is the message it sends about persons affected by disability. They are better not to exist at all. Nothing subverts a pro-life ethic more than such a pursuit.

Mum with two Down’s children challenges abortion culture

Christian Institute: A couple who have two children with Down’s syndrome, including one they adopted, have spoken of the joys of bringing them up – but criticised the culture of aborting children with the condition. Amanda Hazell, who is also a GP, criticised the “negativity” about Down’s in the medical profession.

“As a GP, I see it first hand. The very fact that expectant mothers can be tested for it is suggestive of it being a bad thing; that if your test is positive, the ‘difficulty’ can be ‘sorted’ with a termination.” Their children, Freddie and Mimi, “bring us a richness, a fulfilment we wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t come into our lives. Mimi lives for swimming and painting and Freddie loves acting out scenes with his toys.”

She also criticised the language used in the medical profession – saying Down’s Syndrome is talked about as “a ‘risk’ rather than a possibility.”

Postmodernism and Disability?

Joni & Friends: Everyone seems to be talking about the dangers of postmodern thought and its influence on our world, but how is it impacting special-needs families? What difference does it make to a person with a disability? Your elderly parent with Alzheimer's? Or your granddaughter born with multiple disabilities? Listen in on Joni Eareckson Tada's perspective on this special interview recently aired on Chuck Colson's Breakpoint.

When we think of the pro life movement, abortion is usually the first topic that comes to mind. But people with disabilities are also targets of an increasingly utilitarian society that's turned its back on biblical truth. During this half-hour interview, BreakPoint welcomes a tireless and brilliant defender of disability dignity, Joni Eareckson Tada, the recipient of this year's William Wilberforce Award

Jury awards nearly $3 million to couple in 'wrongful birth' lawsuit

Oregonian: The money will cover the estimated extra lifetime costs of caring for a child with Down syndrome. Ariel and Deborah Levy sued Legacy Health, claiming that Deborah Levy would have aborted her pregnancy had she known her daughter had the chromosomal abnormality. The lawsuit blames Legacy's Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in North Portland and a Legacy lab for allegedly botching the test. 

Their attorney contends that the doctor removed maternal tissue -- not fetal tissue --from Deborah Levy's womb. The suit faults him and lab workers for not recognizing that the tissue was from the mother. According to WebMD, however, chorionic villi are found in the placenta, which is neither baby nor mother.

Editor: So now do parents have to expect to spend an extra $3 million to raise their  children with Down syndrome?

Eugenics, American Style

Slate reprint of article written by Tucker Carlson in 1996: Jeffrey Greenspoon, M.D. is the director of the high-risk obstetric unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In the summer of 1995, during the beginning of the debate over partial-birth abortion, Greenspoon passionately defended the procedure, especially in cases where a child might be born with "problems ... incompatible with a normal life," such as Down Syndrome. "A pregnancy that is desired and planned is the foundation for the next generation of productive, healthy Americans," Greenspoon wrote. "The burden of raising one or two abnormal children is realistically unbearable."

He admits that he approves of eugenics—weeding out "babies who don't have much of a viable life." What makes him uncomfortable, he says, is the word "eugenics," which somehow has assumed "bad connotations over time. I think the better terms would be 'genetic counseling' and 'prenatal diagnosis' and 'having a country in which the option to exercise choice in whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy is a right of the people.'" After all, he says, "Sometimes you need to abandon words that have common meanings that connote the wrong ethics or morals."

But only the words have changed.

If the Other 90% Had Lived

We did not know some 30 plus years ago that we needed Berkeley, but God did, and when He created him, He made Berk just the way he wanted him to be. Berkeley continues to be . . . someone who brings joy and happiness to everyone he meets.

God knew exactly what He was doing. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13 NIV

Each time I hear that 90% of all Down Syndrome babies are aborted, I feel my heart breaking; and I wonder, What conflicts might have been avoided if only those other 90% had been allowed to live? Adventures with Laura

To us, she was Emily

To us, she was Emily | Life and style | The Guardian: Nick Hinton and his partner chose termination after tests showed their baby had Down's syndrome. The decision would gradually tear their family apart.

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Robertson McQuilkin repudiates Pat Robertson

See Pat Robertson repudiates the Gospel

Pat Robertson Repudiates the Gospel (one more time)

This week on his television show Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said a man would be morally justified to divorce his wife with Alzheimer's disease in order to marry another woman. The dementia-riddled wife is, Robertson said, "not there" anymore. This is more than an embarrassment. This is more than cruelty. This is a repudiation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

. . . Marriage, the Scripture tells us, is an icon of something deeper, more ancient, more mysterious. The marriage union is a sign, the Apostle Paul announces, of the mystery of Christ and his church (Eph. 5). The husband, then, is to love his wife "as Christ loved the church" (Eph. 5:25). This love is defined not as the hormonal surge of romance but as a self-sacrificial crucifixion of self. The husband pictures Christ when he loves his wife by giving himself up for her.

. . . A woman or a man with Alzheimer's can't do anything for you. There's no romance, no sex, no partnership, not even companionship. That's just the point. Because marriage is a Christ/church icon, a man loves his wife as his own flesh. He cannot sever her off from him simply because she isn't "useful" anymore.

Pat Robertson's cruel marriage statement is no anomaly. He and his cohorts have given us for years a prosperity gospel with more in common with an Asherah pole than a cross. They have given us a politicized Christianity that uses churches to "mobilize" voters rather than to stand prophetically outside the power structures as a witness for the gospel.

But Jesus didn't die for a Christian Coalition; he died for a church. And the church, across the ages, isn't significant because of her size or influence. She is weak, helpless, and spattered in blood. He is faithful to us anyway. Russell D. Moore, Christianity Today

Editor: See 700 Club footage here. He's right about one thing: He's no ethicist, and no theologian either. I hope this upsets Christians more than anything President Obama does.

In contrast, here's an exquisite example of caring: Robertson McQuilkin faced a similar situation two decades ago. He decided to step down and end his 22 year tenure as president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary. Instead, he helped care full-time for his wife Muriel. She died in 2003 after suffering for 25 years with the disease. During the last decade, Muriel could not recognize her husband caregiver. CT blog

Related:

• McQuilkin's own testimony from the CT archives, called "Living by Vows"
• "Love them to the last breath" - Life Matters issue relating to an AIDS hospice in South Africa. Christian love (let alone marital love) requires a lasting commitment.
• "Should Alzheimer's Be a Reason to Ditch Marriage Vows?" This is by a guy (Mitch Albom) who traveled weekly from Michigan to Massachusetts to be with a friend who had ALS.