DAVID YOUNT: Normalcy, genetics and decency

DAVID YOUNT: Normalcy, genetics and decency

(February 9, 1999 12:00 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Our youngest daughter is a social worker who cares for retarded adults. It is stressful duty, because Christina's patients are unpredictable. It is also physically demanding, because some of her charges need to be dressed and moved, and she weighs only 98 pounds. Christina does not pretend that the people she assists are living lives as full as yours and mine.

But she has reason to be sympathetic to her patients' plight, because she and both of her sisters were born with disabilities and bear them still. They learned early on that handicapped life is harder but still a blessing. As teenagers, all three volunteered for the Special Olympics each summer, helping children with greater difficulties.

Society does not yet discard human lives simply because we regard them as "seconds" or "irregulars." But if you ever visit your local animal shelter, you will find perfectly healthy pets who were abandoned when they became an inconvenience to their owners. My wife and I recently rescued two kittens, abandoned by their owner, who had killed their mother. We were sorely tempted to adopt another orphaned cat who had lost an eye in a fight.

At present, there is mounting pressure for doctors to assist people handicapped by illness, paralysis, or pain to end their lives. But in a few years the real pressure will be on keeping people with possible genetic weaknesses from ever being born. An Australian specialist in muscular dystrophy proudly acknowledges detecting the condition prenatally and aborting every fetus that carries it. The English critic Bryan Appleyard laments that "abortion, for the moment, is the only effective response to the disease. I use the word 'response,"' he adds, "because 'treatment' would not be quite right - the patient is, after all, eradicated, not cured."

Soon it is likely that the DNA of every fetus will be tested, easily and inexpensively, for a wide spectrum of genetic disorders. Parents will be able to keep only healthy, "normal" children, aborting others less genetically blessed. When scientist Jerome Lejeune discovered the cause of Down's syndrome, it was his intention to find a cure for the disease. He was shocked when his discovery led to thousands of abortions.

"Genetics will alter people's view of handicap," predicts Oxford University professor Kay Davies. "People who bring handicapped children into the world will be looked upon as foolish and irresponsible."

In time, doctors may be able to tell parents that their child has a 45 percent chance of having a heart attack by the age of 30. That will be viewed as a potential handicap, and the fetus will be aborted although it is not "ill."

The basis of human sympathy for the disabled is our acknowledgement that we are all, to some extent, handicapped compared to others. There is, after all, only one Michael Jordan. But each of us has a soul, and our ultimate worth comes not from human esteem, but from our creator. Ironically, most suicides are "normal" men and women, whereas most handicapped Americans are grateful to be alive.

David Yount's next book is "Ten Thoughts to Take Into Eternity" from Simon & Schuster. He answers mail at dyount@erols.com.