31 for 21: Abortion and NBC

I barely posted this morning post on abortion in Judaism, and my husband sends me this link.  NBC Today chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman is quoted,

“I think the future will be such that you’ll find out that your child may have a genetic hit. You can fix that genetic problem, and improve your chance, a child’s chance…”

Abortion is not a treatment or a cure for any disease or condition.  Abortion does not "fix" a problem, it eliminates the individual presenting with it. Treating it in this fashion is a slippery slope with many potential unintended consequences, ranging from gender selection (which already happens extensively in many parts of the world) to reducing genetic diversity in our population, possibly resulting in harmful downstream effects which cannot be predicted.  Let's say we identify a gene for juvenile diabetes, and "cure" diabetes by aborting all fetuses with that genotype.  What other features would be lost as a result? To what extent would people be desensitized to postpartum euthanasia if the baby comes out "imperfect"? This is a huge pandora's box, even if the premise of pro-choice is granted (which I do!).

With great power comes great responsibility.

What do you think?

31 for 21: Abortion in Judaism

A couple of weeks ago I wrote some of my thoughts on abortion.  I felt that I should add some Jewish context to the subject, however.   Unlike strict Christianity, even Orthodox Judaism does not consider a fetus to be the equivalent of a full human being.  Abortion in the case of risk to the mother is not only permitted, but is mandatory.  The fetus is seen as trespassing on the mother's body, and can only remain there as long as it is a gracious guest.  Some sources differentiate between the embryonic stage and the fetal stage at the age of 40 days, when the soul is deemed to enter the fetus.  40 days is a number that comes up quite often in Judaism.  It is the number of days that Moses spent on Mt. Sinai producing the Tablets of the Covenant.  This is reflected in the 40 days from Tisha B'Av (commemorating the destruction of the two Temples, but also the sin of the Golden Calf, which supposedly took place on that day) until Yom Kippur, when we have total conciliation with G*d.   Interestingly enough, 40 days is when brain waves begin to be detected.  Although these are not the same kind of brain waves that are associated with conscious thought, the idea that these represent the soul is tantalizing.  Jewish thinkers also vary on the issue of aborting disabled fetuses.  While many argue for abortion in the case of a terminal or severely debilitating condition, more mild birth defects are not seen by Orthodox Jews as warranting termination.   However, even in those cases rabbinic sources frown on abortion, it is not seen as the equivalent of murder, but more of a civil offense on the woman, akin to an amputation.  Even when the fetus warrants consideration, the mother takes precedence.

What does this mean for children with Down syndrome?  Unfortunately, the perception of Down syndrome as a "severe disability" means that many Jewish babies with this condition are aborted.   There are those who are working to reverse this trend, given the rapidly improving prognosis for people with Down syndrome today.   I hope to be one of these!

31 for 21: Torah Connection - Noach

I think I want to make Torah Connection a regular weekly feature.  Here is last week's installment, the beginning of Genesis.

I was teaching my 4-year-old the following verse from this week's Torah Portion, taken from G*d's promise to Noach after the Flood:





'I Myself am establishing a covenant with you and your offspring after you.
Va'ani hineni mekim et-beriti itechem ve'et-zar'achem achareychem.

The connective word "et" does not have an English equivalent.  It links a verb to a direct object.  What is interesting here is the grammatical role of "and your offspring after you".  This is generally translated as being connected to "with", but grammatically, it is a direct object going back to the verb, "establishing".  This parallelism seems, in my reading, to be emphasized in that both "et-beriti" (my covenant) and "et-zarachem" (your offspring) are hyphenated. 

This means, that our offspring are "established" by G*d, and are linked to the divine covenant.  I find that a very interesting way to think about children.  What do you think?

31 for 21: Who will save Sasha?

Whoa!  Somebody is looking out for Sasha:

Sasha was recently transferred to a remote, underfunded mental institution for older children and adults.  He is getting no care or attention there.  He is probably grossly underfed and only getting one diaper change a day.  

But somehow, his grant at Reece's Rainbow has grown to nearly $10,000 lately.  Will that encourage someone to look past Sasha's scary needs and go to that mental institution and rescue him?

His profile speculates on whether he has Cerebral Palsy and/or Autism in addition to Down syndrome.  We do not know if his behavior and severely delayed development is caused by these or other possibilities, or just due to institutionalization.   We do know that he is TINY!  Look at him in the caregiver's hands, like a little baby.  He does seem to be holding his head well in the second picture, while in the earlier one he is still flopped over.  Am I totally crazy to think that he has the potential to grow and develop?  Is there anyone out there "crazy" enough to help him do so?

31 for 21: Torah Connection - Bereishit

Yesterday we read from Bereishit -- the first chapter of the book of Genesis.  It starts with the creation of the cosmos and ends with the genealogy of Noach, and G*d's frustration with the decadence of humanity.

The haftorah portion for this week is from Isaiah, and expands on Israel's role and mission in the world.

First, the link to the Torah portion, G*d as the Creator:

⁵ Thus said God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and what it brings forth,
Who gave breath to the people upon it
And life to those who walk thereon:

And here is Israel's assignment, the true meaning of being "Chosen":

⁶ I the Lord, in My grace, have summoned you,
And I have grasped you by the hand.
I created you, and appointed you
A covenant people, a light of nations —
⁷ Opening eyes deprived of light,
Rescuing prisoners from confinement,
From the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

 After several verses extolling G*d and Creation, we get to this:

¹³ The Lord goes forth like a warrior,
Like a fighter He whips up His rage.
He yells, He roars aloud,
He charges upon His enemies.
¹⁴ "I have kept silent far too long,
Kept still and restrained Myself;
Now I will scream like a woman in labor,
I will pant and I will gasp.

I love the role of G*d (and by extension, Israel) in fighting injustice both from the masculine and feminine perspective here. The reading continues with an elaboration on G*d's powers, building up to this guarantee of divine protection:

¹⁶ I will lead the blind
By a road they did not know,
And I will make them walk
By paths they never knew.
I will turn darkness before them to light,
Rough places into level ground.
These are the promises —
I will keep them without fail.

These are not promises to make our challenges easy -- just to make them possible.

The "short version" of the haftorah pretty much ends there.  The long version continues, and ends with this explanation of the People of Israel as exemplifying proof of G*d's existence to the nations of the world.

⁹ All the nations assemble as one,
The peoples gather.
Who among them declared this,
Foretold to us the things that have happened?
Let them produce their witnesses and be vindicated,
That men, hearing them, may say, "It is true!"
¹⁰ My witnesses are you

—declares the Lord—

My servant, whom I have chosen.
To the end that you may take thought,
And believe in Me,
And understand that I am He:
Before Me no god was formed,
And after Me none shall exist —

 The bolded section here is often misread in Christianity as referring to Jesus.  Rather, it is the People of Israel who are the chosen servant.  It is the task of every Jew to be a Light Onto the Nations, and to create a community that manifests G*d's glory.

31 for 21: A different SN adoption story

Do you think that only Fundamentalist Christians adopt one special needs child after another, beyond their means, and without carefully planning each new addition's future?  It is easy to shake your head and say, Oh, they are just religious nutcases.  Anyway, it can't be good for that many special needs children to live in one home, they can't possibly get all the attention they need.  Etc. etc.

Meet Mama Kong.

She is secular, poor, and has a disability herself (she is hunchbacked).

She is 63 years old.

She and her husband have adopted over 30 children, all with special needs, ranging from cleft lip/palate to severe cerebral palsy.

They live in rural China, in a small rundown shack in a village with no running water.  The children are all abandoned, the victims of China's "one child rule" and extreme pollution which results in one of the highest rates of birth defects in the world.

In addition to the intrinsic challenges of managing the health, emotional and educational needs of all these children, Mama Kong regularly has to stand up to the bureaucracy of the Communist Party itself.




Wow.  Just wow.

Speak truth to power much?


(Ooops, forgot to Hat Tip Leah!)

31 for 21: Pity

Pity.

When do we want pity?  We all get into "pity-parties" sometimes.  It's not a pretty sight.  Feeling sorry for oneself is perfectly natural, but it is a particularly unproductive form of self-gratification.

When we are truly in need, we do not want -- or need -- pity.  We want help.  We want empowerment.  We need self-respect and dignity.

Pity is a form of condescension.  When we pity someone, we do not respect them.  We do not expect them to rise above their current condition.  Ultimately, the kind of help offered through pity serves to perpetuate the state of inferiority.  It serves to make the pitier feel good about him/herself without serving the needs of the pitied.

Please do not pity people with disabilities.  They have "special needs" -- don't we all, sometimes?  If someone needs extra help to see, walk, or learn, either temporarily or permanently, then we should work towards meeting those needs.  Plain and simple.  Learn what the needs are, then see how you can help, not out of pity, but out of empathy -- because that's how you'd want to be treated.  If you can help by being a friend, great!  If you can help by volunteering time or money, great!  If you devote your life, either personally or professionally, to helping others, great! Whatever you can do to meet the needs you see around you will help.  Pity?  Not so much.

I pity the fool.