The Works of God

I was looking for the article by Dorothy Wertz I referenced yesterday, and found this quote from Dr. Adrienne Asch in the article, “Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion: A Challenge to Practice and Policy” from the November 1999 edition of American Journal of Public Health:

If professionals and parents believed that children with disabilities could indeed provide their parents many of the same satisfactions as any other child in terms of stimulation, love, companionship, pride, and pleasure in influencing the growth and development of another, they might reexamine their belief that in psychological, material, and social terms, the burdens of raising disabled children outweigh the benefits.

A vast array of literature, both parental narrative and social science quantitative and qualitative research, powerfully testifies to the rewards-typical and atypical-of raising children with many of the conditions for which prenatal testing is considered de rigeur and abortion is expected (Down syndrome, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, to name only some). Yet bioethics, public health, and genetics remain woefully-scandalously–oblivious, ignorant, or dismissive of any information that challenges the conviction that disability dooms families.

In other words, though we can frequently provide evidence to the benefits of raising our children with disabilities, the belief system of people who are supposed to be serving us leads them to dismiss that evidence.  The only evidence they will consider are the burdens.  Thus, the only right answer for them is to abort our babies with disabilities.

I am grateful when researchers like Dr. Asch point out that it isn’t just the ‘reality’ of burdens that leads to higher rates of abortion.  We are also fighting an evil belief system that automatically assigns lower value to a baby with certain genetic characteristics.  Sort of like we used to do with children born with dark skin in this country.

But given the statistics on abortion of African-American children, maybe I am too quick to say ‘used to.’

Read Full Post »

I found the chapter written by Dr. Dorothy Wertz, “How Parents of Affected Children View Selective Abortion,” from the book, Issues in Reproductive Technology: An Anthology, edited by Helen Holmes.

I now wished I hadn’t.  I am horrified at what she found in her research.

Here is one of Dr. Wertz’s conclusions:

Since individuals rather than governments are making these decisions (selective abortion of children with disabilities), they are not considered eugenic.  Yet, individuals can practice eugenics, perhaps more effectively than governments.  Informal social pressure is a very effective measure of coercion.  Once tests are offered, to reject them is a rejection of modern faith in science and also a rejection of our belief that we should do everything possible for the health of the future child.  To bear, knowingly, a less than perfect child affronts the mores of many social circles.  The sharp reduction in incidents of certain birth defects, such as Tay-Sachs in the United States and spina bifida in Britain, suggests that families are making what amount to eugenic decisions (all bold emphases mine).

There is good news in this.  If individuals are behaving as though there is a sanctioned eugenics movement in the United States, then individuals can be encouraged to make different decisions.

This is where the church and those of us with children with disabilities can engage in loving ways to turn the tide away from eugenics, one couple and one child at a time.

Parents, let us live like our children with disabilities matter and that we trust God to supply all our needs.  There is no reason to minimize our hardships – they are real, and people assume them anyway.  But there is more – God’s promises are real and we have been given a special opportunity to make much of him and testify to his promises through how we live our lives.

People simply do not talk about abortion as an option around me or my son, and I talk all the time about how glad I am to have this boy.  There’s two blows against aborting children with disabilities right there.

For churches, many had pro-life or sanctity of life Sunday services this past January.  Take that extra step – find ways to serve and welcome that family with a disabled family member.  Let all your people know you care about every person who crosses your doors, and that you WANT every one who crosses your doors, as an overflow of your affections for God who has done everything for you.

Will it be hard?  No.  It is impossible.  At Bethlehem we struggle most of the time – some disabilities are really, really hard, we frequently don’t know if we are doing the right things in serving a child or family, we make mistakes that discourage people, we never seem to have enough volunteers, and just when things seem to stabilize, another issue comes up that’s even more complicated than the last.

That is why we anchor everything in prayerful dependence, because only through God’s help will anything happen.

Think – pastor, or elder, or small group leader, or Sunday school teacher, or volunteer, or friend – how will you feel someday if a dad or mom comes up to YOU and says, “because of what I saw in what you did, we chose to have our baby with (terribly difficult disabling condition).”   And what sort of reward will there be from the Father for faithfully serving the most vulnerable of his human creation?

I don’t know.  But I want to find out.

Read Full Post »

If you have not yet read Dr. Mohler’s blog from yesterday, The Scandal of Gendercide – War on Baby Girls, I recommend it.

What is amazing is that he is commenting on an article, War on Baby Girls: Gendercide, in The Economist, a secular publication that believes “in free trade and free markets. . .“

Here is some of what The Economist reported:

It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide. Women are missing in their millions—aborted, killed, neglected to death. In 1990 an Indian economist, Amartya Sen, put the number at 100m (one hundred million); the toll is higher now. The crumb of comfort is that countries can mitigate the hurt, and that one, South Korea, has shown the worst can be avoided. Others need to learn from it if they are to stop the carnage.

Why is this happening?

In fact the destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons; a modern desire for smaller families; and ultrasound scanning and other technologies that identify the sex of a fetus.

Why write about it on this blog?  Because those three forces, only slightly altered, could just as easily have been written about the destruction of children with disabilities.  Is there any material difference between the three forces described above and these three that result in amazing rates of abortion of disabled babies in our country?

1. The ancient preference for a ‘normal’ child
2. A modern desire for family members that don’t inconvenience us too much, or who experience too much suffering
3. Ultrasound scanning and other technologies that identify a disability in the fetus.

When we become untethered from the Bible, which describes the eternal, foundational, unchanging character and attributes of God and his view of his creation, human beings lose their God-granted value and dignity.  Babies become expendable, whether we are talking about girls in China or children with disabilities in America.

The Economist argues that girls in these countries can be saved through economic and educational interventions.  I didn’t find a similar argument being made for children with disabilities.

I would recommend a different solution for both:  Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.”

Read Full Post »

Is Just the Way I Am simply the product of a family, particularly one young woman, who has made ‘lemonade out of lemons’ by persevering through hardship and now has a good story to tell?  Or is there something much more profound, God-centered and God glorifying happening?

David Michael is the Pastor for Parenting and Family Discipleship at Bethlehem, and has been an advocate for the disability ministry at Bethlehem from before its beginnings.  Here is what he has to say about God’s work in Krista Horning’s life:

Nearly a decade has passed since I first met Krista and her family. Her teen years proved to be fruitful and life-shaping. For Krista, Apert syndrome was not a curse to be endured; it was an asset to be invested.Her Maker had a plan for her life and that plan was unfolding before our eyes. Her heart had been uniquely shaped in a way that gave her special understanding, special love, and special influence with other disabled children. She volunteered her time to bless these children and the organizations that serve them.

Our church has many members, and Krista is one of them. There are varieties of gifts and varieties of service. Krista has been given her portion and she has not wasted it.

From Just the Way I Am: God’s Good Design in Disability, p. 54.

The entire Horning family is very special to me.  Krista served my own son for several years before they started attending the South Campus.

But this book is not primarily about Krista – it is rightly focused on God and his good, sovereign design as evidenced in Krista’s life and the lives of all the children who are pictured.

What God is doing through young people like Krista Horning is exciting and life-giving!  And I can hardly wait for more of you to see this book to better understand who our God is – great and mighty in all his ways, kind in all he does, and sovereign over all his creation.

Read Full Post »