The Works of God

On this pro-life Sunday, please trust in God and his word more than technology.

My family has benefited greatly from research and scientific advancements.  And technologies like ultrasound are responsible for saving increasing numbers of babies.  But technology alone isn’t the answer if we want to protect the lives of unborn babies with disabilities:

The rate of TOPFA (termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly) at all gestations and at less than 16 weeks increased significantly during the time of our study. . . This is likely to be due to the increasing sensitivity of screening programs for the detection of structural and chromosomal anomalies during this period. Serum screening and ultrasound imaging have both improved during this time. 

From “Termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly: a population-based study 1995 to 2004,” published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, March 2007. 

What does that mean?  As technologies for diagnosing fetal anomalies improve, increasing numbers of babies with disabilities are aborted.

And of the 3189 cases they studied, 102 babies were born ALIVE following the abortion attempt: 

Of the 102 live births, the gestation ranged from 17 to 33 with a median of 21 weeks. The survival duration for liveborn TOPFAs was a median of 80 minutes. Thirty-seven cases survived for 1 hour or less and six cases survived 6 hours or more. . .  

The process of registration of a live birth and subsequent completion of a death certificate involves the professionals in additional duties and responsibilities with the involvement of the coroner’s office in some cases. The incentive therefore is very much to err on the side of not recording signs of life (emphasis mine) where any doubt exists. (From the same article cited above)

When medical professionals see paperwork as incentive ‘to err on the side of not recording signs of life,’ we know a line has been crossed.  

But we can always take heart!  Even for those doctors who believe they have been given god-like abilities, God himself is still in charge:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;
he turns it wherever he will.

Proverbs 21:1