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L'Osservatore essay condemns fear of 'imperfect' children

CWN - September 08, 2011

The fear of genetic disorders, which prompts many parents to abort babies who are diagnosed with conditions like Down syndrome, shows “the banality of evil which does not seem to bother anyone,” writes Carlo Bellieni in L’Osservatore Romano.

The campaign to eliminate “imperfect” children makes some parents “feel like genetic outlaws,” the Vatican newspaper essay observes. It is the reaction of “a scared and prejudiced world,” which does not recognize that “the affected person is not defined by his or her disorder." There is no reason to believe that children with genetic abnormalities cannot live happily, Bellieni notes; it is the surrounding society that is too weak to accept them.

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  • Posted by: stpetric - Sep. 08, 2011 7:36 PM ET USA

    I've discovered recently that I may have a potentially disabling genetic condition. I hate to think that information might have been justification for killing me in utero.

  • Posted by: lauriem5377 - Sep. 08, 2011 4:45 PM ET USA

    No child is imperfect in the Lord's eyes. In fact, these and all children have the most pure souls in the eyes of the Lord. Think of how pleasing their innocence and purity is to the Lord. How can anyone perpetrate the horror, the offense of an abortion on them and toss their little bodies into the trash? Pray and work every day to stop the pain and suffering of abortion for mothers and babies and all those who love them.

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