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This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #110, July/August, 2000. Related articles from this
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Explanation is Obvious for Murdered
Infants by Bill Dunn |
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Waterbury’s Acting Police Superintendent commented the other day about the two infants murdered in the city recently. “I don’t know any explanation for why people are killing their little ones,” he said. “It’s bad enough for an adult to be killed, but a baby? There’s no reason for that.” Oh really? No reason? Consider the following two situations. Situation #1: A 26-year-old man who can’t stand the crying of his 7-week-old baby girl, allegedly tosses her into the air. On one of the tosses, he drops her, smashing her head against the floor. Her skull is fractured. A while later the father notices that the baby’s skin is cold to the touch. She is dead. Situation #2: Guided by ultra-sound, a doctor reaches into the womb of an eight-and-a-half month pregnant woman and grabs the baby’s leg with forceps. The doctor delivers the baby’s entire body except for the head. His feet are kicking back and forth. His little fingers are clasping together. The doctor takes a pair of scissors and jabs them into the back of the baby’s head. The baby’s arms jerk out in a flinch. His skull is fractured. The doctor opens the scissors to enlarge the hole and inserts a suction tube which sucks out the baby’s brains. The baby’s body hangs completely limp while being pulled the last three inches from his mother. He is dead. In the first situation, the 26-year-old father is arrested and charged with capital felony murder. The newspaper headlines scream with the horrific story. The seven-week-old girl is mourned and eulogized. The grieving mother is consoled and counselled. Police and other officials express dismay, asking how this type of tragedy could have happened. In the second situation, no one is arrested or charged. The doctor receives a handsome fee for his work. There are no headline stories. The little boy is not mourned or eulogized; he is unceremoniously dumped into a medical waste bin. The mother is sent home and advised not to think about it. No expressions of dismay are heard, asking how this type of tragedy could have happened. What exactly was the difference between the dead girl and the dead boy? Well, one of them was probably a few ounces heavier. One had started using its lungs while the other was on the verge of doing so. One had been feeding through its mouth while the other was still receiving nutrients through the umbilical cord. Other than these, there were few differences. Both children had beating hearts. Both had working brains and complex central nervous systems. Both kicked their legs and sucked their thumbs. Both had eyes capable of sight and ears which could hear. Both were unique, never-again-to-exist, human beings. One’s death was a tragic crime, the other’s death was a legally protected “choice.” Is there any wonder that violence against children has risen drastically in the past couple of decades? When our culture tells parents that an unwanted, inconvenient or too-costly child can be legally disposed of—as long as it’s done before the moment of birth— should we be surprised when some parents wait a few weeks too long before making that decision? “After all,” a parent can logically reason, “if the law said this child was a worthless blob last month, why should I treat it as something sacred this month?” Psalm 139 sings out to God about the miracle of creation: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” But even those who do not believe that God is the author of life cannot possibly think that little partially-born aborted boy was a mere blob of tissue. No, he was a human being. Thus, the message proclaimed by our culture these past 27 years is obvious: life is cheap and inconvenient, life is expendable. The explanation for the recent tragedies, my dear Mr. Acting Police Superintendent, is not a mystery. Our culture has embraced legalized murder as a solution to our problems. As long as situation #2 remains acceptable, we should not be surprised when situation #1 occurs. Reprinted by permission. This article received the Amy Award of Outstanding Merit. Mr. Dunn has also published a book, Boomer Trek: One Baby Boomer’s Surprising Journey from Secular Humanism to Faith in God. |
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