This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 14 Sep 2008, by Elena LaVictoire.
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14 Sep 08
Elena LaVictoireMark Shea gives a very well-reasoned approach to dealing with the pregnancy of a possibly terminally ill baby.
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but to first ask ourselves how we might respond rightly in a similar situation.
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n talking to my wife Janet, (the actual baby carrier in this family), she points out the following:
First, ultrasounds have been wrong.
Second, miracles happen sometimes.
Third, and most salient here: every baby she has had is dying. The question is simply, when? Most of them, God willing, will die in 50 to 70 years. But they could die in five minutes.
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When we put it that way, we suddenly realize: Knowing that the baby is going to die sooner rather than later is no reason to kill the baby. It is, says Janet, a reason to love the baby for as long as you can while it’s here. That’s very painful, but that is the risk we take every time we choose to love because everything we love in this world is mortal. It may be objected that an anencephalic baby cannot appreciate our love. I would reply that a healthy baby does not appreciate our love either, because a healthy baby has no more mind than a baby born without a brain. The whole point of parenthood, especially in its earliest stages, is radical self-giving (like Christ) to a being who is wholly incapable of giving anything back besides a sucking reflex. It’s an analogy of the grace of God, the great wake-up call, enfleshed, that It’s Not about Me and What I Get from It. A short course in the life of the Blessed Trinity.
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In contrast, the unspoken contract, it seems to me, of much of our culture is that the baby is there for the sake of the parents and if the baby is not Perfect, then the parents have the right to break the deal. Speaking of playing God….
Finally, as a Catholic I would note that, if aborted, a baby has no access to the sacrament of Baptism. We can, of course, still entrust unbaptized babies to the mercy and love of God, but I would not be able to look God in the eye and tell him I denied my baby the sacrament because my feelings were more important than his eternal welfare.
These are all things I would say to myself if I were weighing the matter. They
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