RH Bill - A Destiny

Hole of Justice

by Peter G. Jimenea


Excommunicate Me!

In August 1969, Jerome Lejeune, a French doctor and world-renowned expert in human genetics was awarded by the American Society of  Human Genetics the William Allen Memorial Award, the highest distinction that can be granted to a geneticist

It is credited to his major work on “mongolism” in 1959, a condition that affects one in every six hundred fifty children called “Down Syndrome.” Learning about this discovery, thousands of families from all over the world with kids suffering from Down Syndrome come to him for treatment.

He helped them to understand and accept the kids created from God’s image that despite their serious mental handicap, they overflow with love and affection. Unfortunately, the American medical establishment at that time has the tendency to resort to abortion to prevent affected babies from being born.

The pretext was that it is cruel and inhuman to allow these poor creatures to come into the world. Great Britain followed the lead of the United States which had legalized screening for Down’s syndrome and its “treatment” by abortion. The media battle in France extended to the abortion of “unwanted children.”

These countries are sharing the theory that “A baby does not legally become a person until it is born. The woman has also the right to do what she wants with her body.” It was molded under the pretext of scientific rigor, a point of view in which God has no place.

The good they say is that although it does not conform to the Law of God, it is efficient.  The bad is that which interferes with material progress. For them, the mongoloid is no longer a person created from the image of God to see and love  Him for all eternity.

The embryo is a living thing in its early development formed by the inter-action of the male’s sperm inside the woman’s womb through harmonious relationship or in some cases, by-forced sexual intercourse. Contraceptives and condom can prevent its development.

But what is to argue with the passage of RH Bill? People had long been using oral contraceptives and condoms. They merely prevent the development of embryo in a woman’s womb by disallowing the man’s egg which may penetrate to form as such. This belies abortion as what the opposition’s earlier claim hinted at.

If we consider the Constitutional doctrine in the separation of the Church and the State, this RH Bill deals more on the latter’s problem for the welfare of its citizens. Other than the widening economic disparity between the rich and the poor, this is a primary concern of women.

The scenario in the pedia-ward of public hospitals in this country bleeds out hearts. The numbers of sick and dying infants are counting. The church-led opposition should ask from the government free or affordable and accessible health services for the poor families rather than to consent on their production of unwanted kids.

And we have yet to know about the unreported cases in slum areas. Presuming that these unwanted children of poor families survived, what good promise of tomorrow awaits them in the future? Now you know why I am for the RH Bill. If Church leaders resent this then …… see the title!