The Works of God

That is the headline in a November 1 article in the UK’s online version of the Sunday Times.  Here are excerpts from that article:

The one-year-old infant, known only as Baby RB, suffers from a rare genetic fault meaning his muscles are too weak for him to move his limbs effectively or breathe unaided.

His mother supports a hospital’s wish to have him taken off the ventilator, which would lead to his death, arguing his quality of life is too low. His father will fight the move in the High Court tomorrow.

If the hospital is successful, it will be the first time a British court has ruled life support can be withdrawn for a child not suffering brain damage, against the will of a parent.

Baby RB suffers from congenital myasthenic syndrome, for which there is no cure, and has been in hospital since birth. His brain has not been affected, and he can see and hear; he enjoys being read stories.

His lawyer will present video footage and photos of the child playing happily and interacting in hospital.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this:

1. The incredible potential precedent of government approval for killing a child ‘not suffering from brain damage, against the will of a parent’ is extraordinary in itself.
2. The fact that a mother would support the hospital’s wish to remove life-supporting technology from her baby is breath-taking.
3. The happy news that a father is willing to stand up to protect his boy is a glimmer of hope.

The fact that people want to kill disabled babies is no longer a surprise.  And working against the will of a parent who is advocating for this child also isn’t a surprise, although the outcome here is certainly of greater consequence than normal.

So, let us pray for this father, that he may be allowed to raise his son with disabilities.  And let us pray that he would display such dimensions of gentle, loving, manly, persistent, God-centered leadership that his wife would be drawn back to him so they both can raise that boy together.

Let us also be glad that a new day is coming.  Someday, hospitals will no longer be necessary and those hospital personnel that abandoned their mission of care to advocate the destruction of an already-born child with disabilities will give account.

And let us pray that this mother will turn her heart toward her child, as the father has, because there are hard consequences for turning away from children.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:1-6