Last night at Otto’s baseball game a very sad and troubling thought raced through my mind. I just couldn’t let the thought go, so I knew I needed to write it down.
It was a beautiful evening,,,the Cubs were playing great ball. My parents were at the game with my nieces and nephew. Greta, Kelsy, Connor, Emma Sage and Fiona were all watching the game and playing [as children tend to do at long baseball games]. We watched them find honey-suckles, pretend sticks were bats and rocks were balls and practice ‘batting’, doing gymnastics and tumbling, climbing on various utility poles and structures ~ like they were gymnastic apparatices,,,,running and playing tag,,,just pure joyful childhood moments.
The thought hit me watching the five of them gleefully running around,,,,each of them filled with the pure simplicities of a childhood moment. Watching Emma Sage with a huge smile on her face and her arms outstretched running brought two powerful emotions to me….one of joy and happiness,,,,,and one of profound sadness. At that precise moment of watching her I realized so many precious children with T21 would never make it to this point [that their lives would be systematically ended by an abortion because their parents received a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome]…….that lives were being ended because they were deemed ‘imperfect’….and here I watched my child, living and loving her life.
Terminating a pregnancy because the child has been diagnosed with Trisomy 21 [ie. Down syndrome] is eugenics…pure and simple. It is taking a wanted pregnancy [unlike a woman who chooses to terminate within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy because she believes she can not mother this child and has no other option]…..A WANTED pregnancy and destroying it because the child has been deemed ‘imperfect’.
This thought brought chills to my spine as I watched my little girl and knowing that her life is not considered sacred to medical professionals, insurance companies and many parents. It troubles me greatly to know that people like my daughter will one day become ‘endangered species’ or ‘extinct’ if the insurance companies and medical professionals continue to paint ‘doom and gloom’ scenarios and continue to perform these terminations solely based on a genetic make-up that varies from the norm.
I believe Katrina said it well this past week at school. They are learning about the Holocaust and the Final Solution. She said that one of the kids made a comment like 'it was no big deal'....and she said she stood up and said 'No big deal......my baby sister would have been one of the first murdered'. and sadly today, 60 years since the end of the Holocaust, people with Down syndrome are still being murdered in the name of 'eugenics' and a 'perfect race', except today they are being destroyed before they are born.
Remember,,,someday they may come looking for you,,,,even before you get the chance to be born.
Pastor Martin Niemöller ~ First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Emma ~ One who Heals
Sage ~ One with Great Wisdom
Emma Sage is our little girl that is blessed with a little extra ~~ chromosome that is ~~ on her 21st pair.
6 comments:
Tara Marie - I love that last quote and have used it often in my religion classes. Where does it end? Today it may be those with trisomy 21 who are never given a chance at life but when they are gone, there will still be a "bottom end" of the IQ scale and tomorrow it may be them. We should not be in charge of defining what is considered a "viable" life and what is not considered such.
Did you see the CNN special entitled "Autism is a World". I think it addressed very clearly what happens when people start working to find solutions that are unique to unique individuals rather then trying to mold them in to what society has traditonally defined as "acceptable".
Hugs to you. I feel so blessed to know you and your darling Emma Sage.
Amen.
As I've blogged several times before, "Choice" was important to me because I *chose* to have Ellie, knowing about her "imperfections." I didn't feel legally trapped in scary circumstances that I didn't expect or understand.
And now I feel like it is my mission to share what a blessing my daughter is. Like you said, *choosing* not to give birth to a wanted child because of a nonlethal perceived imperfection is morally reprehensible. And the medical professionals who paint such a dire picture of life with Down syndrome ought to be educated first and foremost.
TM, LONG time since Ive replied to your blog. But this is so true, and one of your commenters also hit the nail on the head regarding the lower end of the IQ scale always being SOMEONE, someones child. It is heartbreaking.
I think that one of the best weapons we have to combat this annihilation is knowledge. People can logically seperate abortion from eugenics if you dont box them into corners.
The Nazis had a color coding system of triangles for the people they labeled, the mentally challenged wore black triangles. "asocials". The more we can speak from knowledge, history, and come from the angle of "everyone had a color that defined them" the more people hear us. I HIGHLY reccommend a book called War Against The Weak. http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/ it is LONG, but fascinating, and it gives a historical perspective that is hard to argue. Keep writing, TM, keep sticking a foot in the door, someday there wont be many of us fighting left, and even fewer of our precious children. I honestly believe it is our awareness, our photography, and our faith in humankind that will save them. passion is good, but logic is even better. ;)
This is a campaign lobbied by insurance companies. This is genocide. It is illegal based on WHO criteria. How do we fight this? Can we start tomorrow?
This topic has hit close to the surface often for me just the past few months, especially, and I was just thinking about it this morning before I read this. I can't imagine the world without Samantha and those like her. I think it's going to take a strong, public outcry from the self-advocacy community to even scratch the surface of this sad and unnerving opinion, and I sure hope that when they're ready, our girls will be speaking out. I can only just hope that there are more people out there who value the lives of their yet-unborn children as we do.
Love this! My son who has T21 can't get life ins until he's 5. ( because of the outdated information that because he was born with a heart defect he won't live to be 5 and that'd b a waste of their money) when medical science in the 21st century has been able to prolong his life by many many years. Ins companies deny him, but would take his twin brother in a heart beat because he's deamed "perfect". Sorry, they BOTH are perfect so its both or none. Sad that they really expected me to chose one over the other.
Loved this article and keep on writing! Thank you!
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