HeadlineBistro

Seeking true common ground on abortion

At Notre Dame, President Obama eloquently preached the value of dialogue – the country’s need, he said, of setting aside divisiveness and finding common ground, particularly on abortion.

The White House says its own abortion policy will seek the “common ground” approach, but another recent story reveals a more realistic picture of the process: a falling out along the same line that Obama seeks to bridge, as pro-abortion groups resist initiatives to support pregnant women in order to dissuade them from abortion.

U.S. News and World Report writer Dan Gilgoff describes the issue at hand as one of packaging – whether the White House’s plan should manifest itself in one bill made up of two components (“preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion”) or be divided into separate bills. (An earlier article from the Wall Street Journal also echoed this debate).

Gilgoff mentions the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as one of the major players opposed to including provisions for increased funding for contraception or “comprehensive sex education” in a reproductive health bill – both of which would fall under a focus on pregnancy prevention.

USCCB spokesperson Deirdre McQuade is quoted as saying, “We welcome the opportunity to seek common ground with this administration. … But issues of pregnancy prevention are much more divisive and would only slow down much-needed assistance to pregnant women.”

The U.S. bishops have already shown their support for the Pregnant Women Support Act, legislation that would ensure health care for pregnant women, provide pregnancy and parenting classes at maternity homes and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to unborn children and their mothers.

Gilgoff includes a telling quote from a director of the D.C.-based Third Way think tank, which touts “a governing agenda to end the culture wars.”

“For the pro-choice community, that bill has lots of incendiary language and coercive policy,” said the director of Third Way’s culture program. “There’s … a fear that support-only would be defined as the new common ground. For the pro-choice side, the most important part of common ground is pregnancy prevention.”

Such a mentality is astonishing and indicative of the pro-abortion movement. “A fear” that supporting struggling, pregnant women would become “the new common ground”? The implication that handing out condoms and emergency contraception is more important than ensuring health care for both mothers and their unborn children? Where is this coming from – the groups that claim to put women’s rights first?

Relying on contraception to “fix” the problem of abortion is, on the moral level, against Catholic teachings and many others' sensibilities, and on the practical level, a band-aid fix to a deep-seated problem.

Whether or not lawmakers and lobbyists agree is one thing, but offering health care and material support to pregnant women and their children should be a no-brainer. To deny that much defies common sense and walks away from any semblance of common ground.

-- Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor

The Sanford affair and Pope Benedict's remedy of truth and love

The doomsayers are chiming in unanimously: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s fall from grace last week is yet another blow to the pro-family, traditional values core that feels shut out by the party in power, increasingly abandoned by the GOP and desperate in its search for new leadership.

The politics of the matter aside, even the most casual observer of the Sanford drama, from his bizarre disappearance overseas to his admitted affair with an Argentinean woman, can conclude that things are bad – for the man himself and his family, for his state and for his political party, but also in a larger sense for our society. Cynics might disregard Sanford’s philandering as a sad norm in today’s politics, adding to the growing list of Spitzer, Edwards, Ensign and more, but that in itself is alarming as Americans come to expect less and less from the characters of their elected leaders.

Add that to our total disenchantment with the financial industry and the greed-and-hubris-filled executive decisions that helped to topple it, and American optimism in our country – much less the old vision of a “city on a hill” – isn’t exactly at an all-time high. (Even President Obama’s approval ratings have begun to come down as more voters disagree with his handling of the economy and deficit spending.)

It’s perfect timing, really, for Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate.” While a major focus of the document is on the global economy, the pope will certainly be insistent on what is required to transform society overall.

The Apostle Paul “tells us (that) the world cannot be renewed without new human beings,” Pope Benedict said over the weekend in a preview of the encyclical. “Only if there are new human beings will there be a new world, a renewed and better world.”

The pope has said before that lying at the heart of the economic crisis aren’t faulty regulations or bad financial systems but original sin.

Asking “does original sin really exist?” Pope Benedict said yes, because “reason – even ours – is darkened; we see this every day. Because egoism, the root of greed, is to want the whole world for myself. It exists in all of us.”

Even Gov. Sanford, in his rambling, self-flagellating remarks at his press conference last week (“It was like watching a man light himself on fire,” wrote John Dickerson on Slate), alluded to something similar.

“I am here because if you were to look at God's laws, they are in every instance designed to protect people from themselves,” he said while apologizing to his friends and family. “I think that that is the bottom line with God's law. … That sin is in fact grounded in this notion of what is it that I want, as opposed to somebody else.”

At vespers last Sunday, Pope Benedict called this “the way of thinking of the old man … directed toward possessions, well-being, influence, success, fame and so on,” when “‘I’ remains the precise center of the world.”

“We have to learn to think in a more profound manner,” the pope stressed – a manner that is based on faith, and in being transformed as a “new person” by Christ’s love.

From the financial meltdown of 2008 to yet another politician’s plummet into the nation’s ridicule, we have certainly seen the destructive effects of greed and selfishness on every level of our society.

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict remarked that “Justice cannot be created in the world solely with good economic models, which are necessary. Justice is realized only if there are just people.”

And if the title of his new encyclical is any clue, his remedy is love – “the test of truth,” he said Sunday. “Ever more we must be measured by this criterion, that truth becomes love and that love makes us truthful.”

“To open hearts to justice and charity,” Pope Benedict has said before, “is to lead to God.”

For today’s society, it’s a step well worth taking.

-- Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor

Some major stories are flying under the radar.

Crises seem to be stacking one on top of another in recent days. The U.S. recession was the hot topic until the outbreak of swine flu, which was usurped by the stories of North Korean missile threats, which in turn gave way to videos of Iranian election protests, and now, of course, all attention is drawn to the Governor Sanford’s torrid love affair with an Argentine mistress. No, wait, make that the passing of Michael Jackson.  And we are still waiting for the Ark of the Covenant to open.

However, other major issues are unfolding while regular people’s attention is drawn to the eye-grabbing stories.

A major vote in the House of Representatives on energy legislation is scheduled for today that may radically change the American economy. Considering the size of the bill, 1,201 pages, much of the minutiae of the bill's actual details may remain largely unexamined. As many have noted about the legislation and noted previously concerning the stimulus package, various interest groups are aware of relevant sections of the bill that may affect them, but few people can honestly say they have read the entire bill, which seems the modus operandi of Washington.

The crux of the bill, a cap and trade system, essentially taxing industrial carbon output through the sale of carbon credits, is a major reworking of the American economic system, with far reaching consequences in terms of jobs, growth, industry, and productivity, and the prices of almost everything. Caution is warranted especially in light of the precarious financial situation of the country; the CBO recently released numbers indicating the national debt will outgrow the size of the U.S. economy by 2023.

On June 22nd, Most Reverend Howard J. Hubbard of the USCCB and Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services wrote a joint letter to Congress largely endorsing the legislation, despite remaining “very concerned about the inadequate funding for assisting the poorest people and countries on earth through international adaptation efforts.” They noted the severe impact climate change may be having on the world’s poor and the need to address it.

Their point is well made, and in light of their concerns, all would agree that a national conversation about the bill is needed to fully consider all the issues involved and the possible consequences. To grab an example from recent memory, a more cautious and circumspect approach to the rush to ethanol in recent years may have foreseen the spike in corn prices that was such a burden on the world’s poor. What are the unforeseen consequences of today’s legislation? In 1,201, pages, maybe quite a few.  What is needed is a conversation which should occur when America’s attention is not focused on the King of Pop.

In the letter of Bishop Howard and Mr. Hackett they noted that “we are deeply disappointed that the funding resources committed to international adaptation fall fundamentally short of what is needed initially and that additional increases in resources are pushed too far off into the future. We understand that the current allocation reflects compromise and competing political priorities, but Congress cannot leave the most vulnerable people without adequate help needed to protect their lives and dignity. For us, this is not a marginal matter, but rather a matter of moral priority and policy.” In examining any piece of legislation, we have a moral obligation to take an unbiased look how at the measure affects the most vulnerable. Let us hope that occurs.

Paul Ciarcia, Communications Associate

"Alternative" abstinence, The State's restraint, and the hopeless diagnosis

The Christian virtues of chastity and abstinence seem needed now more than ever in modern society. The pervasiveness of premarital sex and the epidemic of teen pregnancies are now major social problems. Unfortunately, solutions to these problems ungrounded in natural law or any consideration of the moral complexity of the human person often produce ridiculous results. Consider the secular alternative to chastity being proffered by this program in Greensboro, N.C.

The program – which essentially consists of bribing girls to avoid pregnancy – skews entirely the most important aspect of chastity. It is not just about the supposed threat that children pose to young women’s future plans of becoming lawyers, doctors, or famous singers. The importance of chastity is about respect for the sexual act and conjugal love. Further, the idea of children as some type of burden on one’s career plans, instead of wedded motherhood as a fruitful end in itself, is worrisome.

As you may have guessed, the “dollar a day keeps the baby away” program is state funded, and the money they receive, a dollar a day and a seven dollar savings fund, is supposed to go toward paying for college. (Never mind that at most colleges today it would take about a hundred years of such “chastity” to pay for freshman year). But the most disturbing part of the story would have to be the fact that the program begins with girls aged 12.

In other news, the biggest headline today is the Governor Sanford affair. Here is one interesting note on the issue. The emails between the governor and the woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina were actually obtained by The State, a South Carolina paper, last December. However, the source could not be confirmed, and thus the correspondences were not published until yesterday, when the governor’s extended South American vacation spilled the beans.

That type of restraint, not publishing, is quite rare in the news industry. Papers have published false stories about U.S. soldiers flushing Korans down toilets or an affair by Senator John McCain with no consequences. Papers have published national security secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, and nothing has happened. The State waited until they could verify the emails before they published the story. Other papers of record would most likely not have waited, and have not waited in the past. The Pulitzer can sometimes be the prize for bringing down a politician, and it will be interesting to see what prize restraint will bring The State.

On the legislative front, here’s a snippet of President Obama discussing hard choices in controlling healthcare costs: "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller." That’s not exactly a statement one would want to hear coming from your doctor. The statement seems to reflect what Tom Daschle, the president’s former nominee for Health and Human Services stated in his book on healthcare reform – that we must come to grips with "hopeless diagnoses and the willingness to forgo experimental treatments," as is done is some European systems.

In May, Bishop William F. Murphy, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, stressed the concept of dignity and respect for life at every stage in crafting any healthcare system. He also noted that  “all people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health care that they can afford, and this should not depend on their stage of life, where or whether they or their parents work, how much they earn, or where they live or where they come from.” If cost controlling measures will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable or those with the worst diagnoses, it seems more work is needed to forge an acceptable plan. As Bishop Murphy stated, “The moral measure of any health care reform proposal is whether it offers affordable and accessible health care to all, beginning with those most in need. This can be a matter of life or death, of dignity or deprivation.”

Paul Ciarcia, Communications Associate

Marriage, Obama and Army Chaplains in the News

Is same-sex marriage the new litmus test for politicians?

It might seem so. In Connecticut, embattled Senator Chris Dodd faces a tough re-election race fraught with controversy – from his role in protecting AIG executive bonuses to revelations that he received two sweetheart mortgage deals from one of the strongest proponents of subprime mortgages before the meltdown last fall.

Politico now reports that Dodd – who in 1996 voted for an early version of the Defense of Marriage Act – is flipping on his stance on same-sex marriage, which became the hot topic in Connecticut last summer after it was legalized by the state’s Supreme Court and codified by the Legislature earlier this year.

“I was raised to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Dodd wrote in a blog post to his Senate website. “And as many other Americans have realized as they’ve struggled to reconcile the principle of fairness with the lessons they learned early in life, that’s not an easy thing to overcome. But the fact that I was raised a certain way just isn’t a good enough reason to stand in the way of fairness anymore.”

In New Jersey, too, same-sex marriage has become a key issue in the gubernatorial race, with incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine now touting “marriage equality” in his campaign. One Trenton-based reporter notes that as recently as 2006, Corzine said he believed that “the fundamental and traditional view of marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Says one leader in a New Jersey same-sex marriage advocacy group: “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when a candidate campaigns on an issue, it’s not only because he or she believes in the issue, but also because the candidate believes it’s a political plus.”

Shifting gears, it seems the mainstream media are uninterested in President Obama’s dismissal of the Presidential Bioethics Council.

This is the group of philosophers, scientists, doctors and other academics that advises the president on bioethical issues of concern – for example, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, to name some of the gravest topics.

The New York Times’ article on the subject almost reads like a press release from the White House itself, with quotes that Bush’s council was “a philosophically leaning advisory group” and “more like a public debating society,” but nothing from defenders.

Princeton professor and Catholic thinker Robert George – a member of the now-disbanded council – spoke out to Catholic News Agency, arguing that in no way could the council have been considered a monolithic reflection of President Bush’s thought. For example, he said, of the 18 council members, half did not share Bush’s convictions, and a third had not supported him politically.

“Bush was falsely accused of stacking the council with religious conservatives, but really, he did not stack it at all,” George said. “It was incredibly diverse and that allowed the best possible contributions to be made.”

Going further, George expressed doubts that the Obama council would do better in terms of creating a philosophically diverse group.

“I believe his council will have no substantial dissenting voice,” George said, adding later that he thought the new council “will likely function as a rubber stamp to support Obama’s agenda.” 

Finally, some good news – the slew of recent stories on military chaplains.

First, there was the undeniably sad but inspiring story on Fr. Tim Vakoc, the Minnesota priest who died last weekend, five years after suffering severe brain injuries from a blast in Iraq during his tour there. As I noted in the News Wrap, Fr. Vakoc’s witness is a powerful start to the Year for Priests. He is especially being mourned by the Knights of Columbus – he was a member of the Order for over 30 years.

Second, from Kansas comes a potential miracle for a Korean War Army chaplain whose case for canonization is currently being investigated by the Vatican. The Wichita Eagle captures in print the hopeful devotion that Fr. Emil Kapaun’s home region has for the priest, especially after the “miraculous” healing of a local college student’s fractured skull.

Finally, this might be a stretch, but it seems noteworthy that one of Good Morning America’s featured interviews on this week’s D.C. Metro crash was with another Army chaplain – Fr. Dave Bottoms, who was on the car that rammed a stopped train on the tracks ahead. Fr. Bottoms – who is not Catholic – said he “began praying” as he watched the wave of seats and train wreckage rush toward him. When the train finally stopped, Fr. Bottoms said he led the car in the Lord’s Prayer, giving everyone a chance to recover themselves and then begin to try to pull each other out of the wreckage.

--Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor

The Tragic Loss of a Young Woman Becomes a Rallying Cry for Iranian Protestors

Often assailed as a counterfeit of truly human interaction, social networking sites have been an incredible force in bringing people together in recent days. The digital media have been one of the sustaining forces of the entire Iranian uprising. If you visit Youtube, you will see proudly advertised across the top of the screen an announcement indicating where you can follow the unfolding turmoil. Youtube videos and other networking sites have revealed the graphic scene of the death of the young Iranian woman Neda, aged 26, killed by a stray bullet while observing ongoing Iranian protests. The images have put a name and a face on the loss of life in that country, and simultaneously become a rallying cry for reformers.

 The tragic and senseless loss of an innocent young woman has been more resonant than a week’s worth of stone throwing and skirmishes with police, just when it appeared that government crackdowns were putting the protesters back on their heels. The outcry of oppressed Iranians has been echoed by numerous protests in America. The outpouring of compassion and outrage across the world evinces a deep running humanity that binds all peoples, even those whose countries have been locked in nuclear brinksmanship.

A conference on Interreligious Dialogue occurred in Venice on Monday, focused on defusing perceived notions of a clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity, and overcoming a relationship based on fear. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, noted many areas of progress as well as challenges ahead. In light of recent events in Iran, it seems a fitting time to consider ways that religion and dialogue can bring people together based on common humanity and shared values, rather than push them into polarized camps.

In other news, a meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI has been scheduled for July 10, to coincide with a Group of Eight world summit occurring in Italy. In addition to potential flashpoints of disagreement such as the repeal of the Mexico City Policy, embryonic stem-cell research, and homosexual marriage, it will be interesting that the meeting will occur shortly after the release of Caritas in Veritate, the pope’s encyclical on economics, globalization, and the common good. As numerous commentators have noted, President Obama has committed himself to a remaking and correcting of the financial system of the United States in light of its recent collapse. The pope’s encyclical will bring a clear moral voice to bear on current economic thinking.  It may prove to be fertile ground for discussion and consensus between the two world leaders as well as an opportunity to get a reaction from the president on his opinion of the document.

A powerful beginning for the Year for Priests

With the start of the Year for Priests comes the remarkable story of Fr. Timothy Vakoc.

Fr. Vakoc was a Catholic priest and Army chaplain whose call to imitate Christ and bring God’s peace to the battlefield was fulfilled last weekend – he passed away in a Minnesota nursing home five years after suffering severe brain injuries in an explosion in Iraq.

The Twin Cities’ Pioneer Press has one of the best articles on Fr. Vakoc, drawing out how even while bed-ridden, the priest continued to minister to those who cared for him. 

“His family and many people believe that his preaching never stopped,” said one college friend of Fr. Vakoc. “His new podium was his hospital bed. He continued to reach out to people, just in a different way.”

The article opens with this revealing anecdote and a statement from Fr. Vakoc’s local bishop:

The Rev. Tim Vakoc once told his sister that the safest place for him to be was in the center of God's will.

“If that is in the line of fire, that is where I will be,” he had said. …

… “A man of peace, he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America’s fighting men and women,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a prepared statement. “He has been an inspiration to us all and we will miss him.”

That Fr. Vakoc’s vehicle was attacked on his way back from celebrating Mass in Mosul, Iraq, only seems to heighten the heroic dedication that the chaplain had to his vocation. It also serves as a vivid example of what Pope Benedict is exhorting the Church’s priests toward in the Year for Priests.

At a prayer service Friday evening, the pope reflected on the feast day – that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – after venerating the relics of St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests.

This saint, whose heart had been brought to Rome, allowed himself “to be completely conquered by Christ,” Pope Benedict said. “May this also be the main objective of each one of us.”

He added that God’s plan consists “in making Christ the heart of the world.”

“This plan is achieved in history as, little by little, Jesus becomes the Heart of human hearts,” Pope Benedict said, “beginning with those called to be closest to him: that is, priests.”

“If that is in the line of fire, that is where I will be” – Fr. Vakoc seems to have understood the freedom and security that comes from allowing one’s hearts to be “conquered by Christ,” and, as Pope Benedict continued, “to abandon our human security and entrust ourselves to (Christ) … to make of ourselves an unreserved gift of love.”

That call to love, even to the point of laying down one’s life, is meant for the whole world. But the Catholic Church can be thankful that, for 2,000 years, it has seen priests of the likes of Fr. Vakoc who show us the way.

--Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor

The "Year for Priests"

Not only will the Church soon be celebrating Father's Day, but also Father's Year, so to speak. This Sunday we will honor Fathers for their great strength and the great sacrifices they make to raise their families. Similarly, today and the rest of this year is an occasion to honor priests for the great sacrifices they make, as fathers to us all, to aid their congregations in spiritual and moral growth. Today is the beginning of the Year of the Priest, running June 19th, 2009 to June 19th, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed a “Year for Priests” on March 16th of this year, with the theme of "Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests."

April 19th of this year was the one year anniversary of Pope Benedict’s Visit to New York in 2008. A mosaic commemorating the event was unveiled on that date at one of the churches he visited, St. Joseph Parish, on 87th St. in Manhattan. Cardinal Edward Egan was presiding during the April 19th mass commemorating the pope’s visit, and his homily discussed why he requested that Pope Benedict’s visit be made to a regular parish environment as opposed to a larger more high profile venue. He noted that he deliberately sought that Pope Benedict visit a regular parish to highlight the centrality of parish life. He repeated this theme in his remarks at the Knights of Columbus’s “Neighbors Helping Neighbors Volunteer Summit” in February, saying “When I came here (NYC) I looked up at the great building there on First Avenue, the skyscraper we have. It says the Catholic Center. And I said ‘Someday I’d like to take that down. That is not the Catholic Center. The Catholic Center is the neighborhoods and the parishes. This is the administrative office to help them do their job’.”

Going forward into the “Year of the Priest”, the cardinal’s point is well made. It causes one to stop and contemplate the important role your local priest plays, standing at the very center of the Catholic Church in bringing the faithful closer to Christ. Sometimes it easy to underestimate the importance of things that are so near and so familiar. All of the work of the Catholic Church comes together in what your priest celebrates every Sunday, wherever you are, however small your parish. The “Year for Priests” should be a reminder of the remarkable men who have made sacrifices to devote their lives to the faith, and do so much to bring us closer to God.

Paul Ciarcia, communications associate

Making up for yesterday

In contrast to yesterday’s ludicrous article on the Oregon couple suing because they didn’t get the chance to abort their Down syndrome daughter – from Pennsylvania comes this story of another couple approaching a similar situation with a completely different attitude.

Shortly after his birth, Josiah and Tiffany Kuenzi’s first child, Dillon, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy – a condition that took his parents by complete surprise and changed their lives forever.

In the article in their local paper, the Kuenzis’ very human struggles with raising a special-needs, first-born child are not downplayed or sentimentalized – but neither is their Christianity.

On one hand, The Oregonian article was good in how it conveyed the horrible irony of parents who wish they could have killed their unborn daughter – yet hesitate to speak to media, lest they be portrayed as “heartless.” But this story from the Pottstown Mercury succeeds by highlighting a couple’s unconditional love – a love sustained by their faith that just as “God allowed this situation,” as Tiffany Kuenzi wrote, “God would carry me through it.”

Another interesting facet to the Kuenzis’ story: they’re pursuing a cure for Dillon that involves non-embryonic stem cells and are currently fundraising for a trip to China in order for their son to undergo the procedure. The article notes that Tiffany Kuenzi comes from “a conservative religious background” and is quick to clarify that these stem cells are mature and not harvested from embryos.

If that procedure works, what a testament it will be for the future of non-embryonic stem cell research – in this case, involving stem cells harvested from the umbilical cord. Regardless, Dillon’s parents already seem to be serving as double witnesses to the beauty and dignity of human life. 

--Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor

Postscript: First Thing’s featured article today is “On the Demise of Fatherhood.” In it, philosophy professor Andrew Peach traces the causes behind our modern culture’s distaste for fatherhood – but concludes with a beautiful defense of what lies at the heart of the world's rejection of the vocation: namely, that fatherhood changes you, and that the awesome “goods of fatherhood” lie “outside (fathers’) rational plans.” It’s well worth the read.

More madness

We all know there are days when, after reading the news, the only seemingly adequate reaction left is dropping our jaws and shaking our heads, thinking, What is wrong with this world.

Unfortunately, today is one of them.

Most recently, the District of Columbia election board blocked a proposed measure to allow residents a vote on recognizing same-sex marriages within the nation’s capital. The district’s council had voted last month to recognize those unions performed in other states, but opponents rallied to bring the issue to the people.

Instead, blatantly sidestepping its own residents, the city determined that such a vote would be a violation of the Human Rights Act. One openly gay councilman went so far as to say that “there is no question that the proposed referendum would have the effect of continuing discrimination.”

What political reasons could lie behind the Board of Election’s decision to reject a referendum? For one, same-sex marriage could lose – the council’s earlier decision was met with heavy, local opposition, especially among the black, Christian community and the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

The latter issued a statement on the rejected referendum, saying it “has once again disenfranchised the residents of our city.”

Msgr. Charles Pope, a contributor to the archdiocese’s blog, added even stronger words.

“Advocates of the ‘new morality’ will likely cheer this decision, but they should examine their cheerfulness,” he wrote. “Whatever the motives of the members of the Board elections were I do not know. But no one should cheer a silencing of the voice of the people in this matter whether it is by refusing to hold hearings or refusing a referendum.”

Meanwhile from the West Coast comes a lawsuit that is simply stunning in its audacity and horrifying in its implications: a couple suing for more than $14 million because their hospital’s prenatal test failed to reveal that their daughter had Down syndrome. Had they known the true results of the test, say parents Deborah and Ariel Levy, they would have aborted the baby.

In addition to suing for their now-toddler’s medical, therapeutic and educational expenses, the couple also says they’ve suffered depression and emotional distress, that their child has interrupted Deborah’s career and that Ariel “seeks compensation for the effect his daughter has had on his relationship with his wife.”

The Oregonian story is good in that it objectively exposes the dangerous path that such lawsuits can lead to, from the disturbing concept of “wrongful birth” or “wrongful life” lawsuits, to what the director of the Northwest Down Syndrome Association calls the “tyranny of perfection” – the mentality that babies must undergo every conceivable prenatal test.

“If you keep growing the list, where and when do we grow uncomfortable about that list?” she said. “I’m not sure where this is taking us.”

--Elizabeth Ela, Headline Bistro editor