By Sarah Terzo
The late author and theologian James Tunstead Burtchaell received the following letter from a disabled woman and her husband:
“Amniocentesis and its search and destroy philosophy… We cannot emphasize too strongly the evil of destroying an unborn child who may be deformed. I can give personal witness to the fact that such unborn sick children do want to live. I am a Marfan’s syndrome and spina bifida person, happy that my parents loved me enough 56 years ago to give me my right to live and be a Catholic. Though both diseases cause me only mild problems, I would still want to live if I had been a more severe case. When I did volunteer work in a local nursing home, I was struck by the cheerfulness and will to live of the patients there, all poor, many black, who many would say should never have been born – how unchristian and hard of heart we as a nation are.”
James Tunstead Burtchaell, Abortion Parley (New York: Andrews and McMeel Inc., 1980), xii.
Editor’s note. This appeared at Clinic Quotes and is reposted with permission.