Sanctity of Human Life
My daughter, Sarah, did not open her eyes for the first six weeks of her life.
While in utero, Sarah was diagnosed with Down syndrome, a heart defect, and a slew of genetic abnormalities. Following her birth, she laid limp like a rag doll in the NICU incubator, her tiny frame overwhelmed by tubes and monitors. Just before her nurses wheeled Sarah in for open heart surgery at that six-week mark, I knelt next to her hospital crib and cried. That’s when Sarah, with perfect timing, opened her eyes and stared deep into mine.
It was as though she was telling me, “I’m in here, Mom. Don’t give up. Don’t you dare give up.”
That moment—that glimmer of humanity—reminded me that Sarah’s life, with all its medical complications, is just as precious as her two typical siblings.
I work at a disability ministry in Los Angeles County called Joni and Friends. A big part of what we do is sharing the biblical truth that people with disabilities are created in the image of God—worthy of equality and protection. Sadly, that is not the prevailing assumption of the medical community, or many of the legislators, in our country.
January is Sanctity of Human Life Month. And as public conversations surrounding abortion and medically assisted suicide continue to pinpoint people with disabilities as the best candidates, it’s time to ask an uncomfortable but all-too-timely question: Do people with disabilities deserve to live?
Of course, the answer is yes. But if we peel back the thinking behind many common medical and legislative practices, it appears that the prevailing opinion—at least in practice—is no.
In fact, over the past few decades, non-invasive prenatal testing has dramatically influenced who gets to be born. And it has uncovered just how deep our culture’s bias against disability runs. Of pregnancies with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, roughly 67% are terminated. When it comes to a prenatal diagnosis of spina bifida, termination rates increase to around 70%.
Outdated and false information about low quality of life for people living with disabilities often influences the decisions of parents struggling with a diagnosis. And while no one needs to be able to “do” anything in order to prove their worth, people with Down syndrome earn fine art degrees, run the world’s largest online sock company, and earn black belts in jiu-jitsu. My sweet Sarah is practically non-verbal, yet she does the best Elvis impersonation I’ve seen—complete with sequined jumpsuit and all the right dance moves. Sarah exudes joy wherever she goes. The world is a better place because she’s in it.
For decades the western world stood in judgment of the Chinese practice of femicide. It is time to face the truth that in the United States, we practice a similar form of population control. We just discriminate against a different category of people. Abortion is being used to limit and eliminate an entire category of people based on their DNA. Countries like Iceland have already nearly totally eliminated their Down syndrome population through prenatal testing and termination.
And when it comes to conversations around medically assisted suicide, disabling conditions are always at the top of the list for qualifiers. Why do we assume that people with disabilities are less worthy of life? If a non-disabled loved one threatened suicide, we would try to stop them, not agree with their ideation.
Why, instead of using our legislation and resources to make the lives of people with disabilities better, are we using them to make it easier for people with disabilities to die?
When I received Sarah’s Down syndrome diagnosis at my four-month prenatal appointment, the doctor recommended termination immediately. And she didn’t just recommend it, she pressured me to reconsider when I told her I was choosing life for my daughter. The offer of abortion was repeated throughout the remainder of my pregnancy.
With my first two pregnancies, which were typical, no medical professional ever suggested termination. Doctors never assumed that my non-disabled children were undeserving of life.
There is a bias against disability in the United States. Surely, strides have been taken since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990. Upon its passage, disability advocate Paul Hearne said the law would change building codes and public transportation, but it wouldn’t change hearts.
As the mother of a child with a visible disability, I can tell you we are still waiting for hearts to change.
And as our nation legislates reproductive issues in this post-Roe environment, we need to settle the matter regarding who is deserving of life. At least eight states have banned abortion on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis. And corresponding legislation has been proposed at the federal level.
Despite modern biases against disability, caregiving for those who are vulnerable and differently abled among us has always been part of our human experience. Research now shows that Neanderthals likely cared for children with Down syndrome in their communities.
These primitive people, with their limited resources, protected the lives of disabled community members. Shouldn’t we, with our expansive resources, do the same?
Written By—Shauna Amick, M.Ed.
Director of Direct Response and Radio Channel Marketing
Joni and Friends
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