Deemed Unfit for Life
Unfit for life. What do you mean by that? I have the pleasure of teaching logic at a local Christian Classical school and one of the principals we teach is the importance of defining terms. Take for instance the term God. When I say God you might think I am talking about Jesus, or from a Muslim perspective Allah, or from a Hindu perspective many of the gods, or from a secular humanism perspective either nothing or self. So when in debate or conversation it is incredibly important that we understand the definition someone is using for a particular term. In this instance the term is “life.” We have another blog post outlining our perspective of life that comes directly from the Author and Creator of Life.
With any diagnosis there is the potential for a mistake. When we received the news that our daughter may have Trisomy 13 they told us it was with 60% confidence. So in a positive sense there is a 40% chance that she does not have the syndrome and that the genetics test was mistaken. At this point many doctors encourage abortion due to the diagnosis. The statistics in America are 75% of children diagnosed with Trisomy 13 are aborted while its upwards of 90% in Europe. (Please see our Trisomy 13 statistics page for the source). Please keep this statistic in mind because there are people opting for abortions based on 60% confidence. But this is not how it is spoken of. It is spoken of as a surety by many doctors. There is an option to have an amniocentesis but that has risks to cause preterm labor so we opted out of that. Through a series of ultrasounds over the next few months the likelihood that Lillian did have Trisomy 13 was increased due to various abnormalities on the ultrasound. They noticed an extra finger (which she has), they also thought her stomach was not connected to her throat (which it was). My point in sharing this is as amazing an ultrasounds are they are still not perfect. They are like viewing an object through fogged up, dirty glasses. I mean you are looking at the child through the mother’s body.
After receiving the diagnosis our Obstetrician asked me what I did for work to which I responded “I’m a Pastor.” He then said “Well then I will assume then that you want to go through with the pregnancy.” We replied yes we will and he graciously said he will never ask again. But he did at times try to convince us of the difficulties we would experience having her and the trauma that could come upon my wife or our baby. Remember his main job is to take care of my wife. So I do not question his heart but disagree vehemently with his conclusion. Unfortunately, we have heard horror stories from peers where every doctor visits they are asked again if they want to go through with the preganacy or would they consider an abortion because your child is deemed unfit for life.
This phrase “unfit for life” is a common one. The question becomes what do you mean by life? Are we talking living, moving, breathing, eating? Or are we talking about the way one lives? What exactly do you mean by the phrase life? It boiled down this.
If the child survives, the child will have a “poor quality of life.” Now this phrase fires me up. Who are you to determine what a good quality of life is? Is it according to your standard of living? Is it accordance to her cognitive function? Does the idea of her having a poor quality of life ruin my own quality of life? What a selfish thought and question that is, yet many of us struggle with it. We as image bearers of God have no right to determine a person’s worth based on their quality of life.
Side note: preacher moment- we had a Christian woman tell my wife they do not believe special needs children are made in the image of God. Let me first say I am glad that I was not present because I may have sinned in that moment. But that is an absurd statement! They are saying that because there is something different about them something that makes them less beautiful or less worthy. Excuse me! If we start down that train of thought we need to ask ourselves were does it stop. Is it a genetic difference? Is it a hereditary sin difference? Is it a standard of beauty difference? Because God is beautiful and there may be some less so beautiful people like say Leah from the Bible. Jacob wanted to marry Rachel because of her beauty yet Leah was deemed not beautiful. But despite that the Messiah came from her line! This belief that was shared to my wife is rooted in the heresy of the prosperity gospel. Because from the Bible’s perspective, compared to God “there is none of who does good no not one," “we have all fallen short of the glory of God.” So does my daughter’s genetics therefore bar her from being made in God’s image or is her syndrome allowed by God to bring Him praise and glory like the man born blind from birth from John 9. They said, “Jesus who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?” To which Jesus replied, “No, he is just not made in the image of god, lets move on.” Ha that ridiculous, No Jesus says “neither he nor his parents were born blind but rather that the glory of God be revealed in His life.” It’s as if God allowed this trial to bring Him glory. Hmm, interesting.
Okay now back to the phrase “poor quality of life.”
I half jokingly say well having poor quality of life is better than having no quality of life. See from their perspective the doctors deem her unfit for life because she will not have the quality of life they deem to have value. This is incredibly arrogant and though most doctors have a good heart their belief in determining a persons quality of life is evil. At it’s core it tries to define a human beings worth based on external factors. Was this not the same line of logic that was used to justify slavery in America? Blacks are subhuman. Or the Aryan Race Theory in Germany where Jews are of an inferior race?
This concept is unbiblical and evil. Yet here we are, Lillian is full of life. She has recently developed a smile, she kicks around, she plays with her toys, she holds my finger. She laughs and adds joy to our family. Though she is mostly deaf she can hears the high pitched squeals of her sisters and she looks for them with delight. Lillian is full of life and she has added life to our lives. The lessons we are learning, the love we are giving, and the sacrifices we are making are drawing us closer to Jesus who is the sole possessor of life!
We had no idea what her life would be like. Would she live past an hour? Past a day? Past a week? Our Lord knows and no matter that quantity of time, her quality of life will be glorious regardless of circumstance. Her life will be different than ours. Her life will be difficult. Yet her life is worth living because she is an image bearer of God proclaiming His goodness to her community around and that is what we will share in our next article.
