The Works of God

I’ve mentioned the bio-ethicist Peter Singer before, and his arguments to kill infants with disabilities.

Members of the Supreme Court of the United States have also held such views about people with disabilities.

Paul Lombardo’s horrifying history of a case brought before the Supreme Court, Buck v. Bell, includes this statement from Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr., Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1902 – 1932:

As I have said, no doubt, often, it seems to me that all society rests on the death of men.  If you don’t kill ’em one way you kill ’em another – or prevent their being born.

Lombardo goes on to say:

He had no compunctions about ‘restricting propagation by the undesirables and putting to death infants that didn’t pass examination.’  Lombardo, p. 165

For a season the eugenics movement in the United States had the backing of the Supreme Court, powerful members of congress, a couple of United States presidents, influential philanthropists, university professors, scientists, and even members of the clergy.

That season is gone.  The organizations that grew up out of that movement, like Planned Parenthood, have needed to entirely change their message to continue to exist.

May it be so for this evil season of abortion as well.