The life of Katherine

God, not circumstances, is the giver of life's "worth" | Nickolas Eicher

The grocery store checker struck up a conversation with my wife about babies. As the clerk scanned the grocery goodies that would make up part of this past year's Christmas meal, she spoke of a friend whose baby had a congenital heart defect and died just months after birth. The hardest part, she said, was going to the funeral; it was all just too sad. Had this friend known earlier in the pregnancy about the heart defect, "she would have terminated."

That'll be $52.50. And Merry Christmas to you, too.

In situations where "paper or plastic?" is usually the only controversial issue most people face, it is an amazing testament to Roe vs. Wade's 24-year iron grip on this culture that advocating the prenatal killing of a sick or handicapped baby is not considered inappropriate grocery-aisle conversation. It might also help explain why President Clinton was able to get away politically with vetoing the partial-birth abortion legislation. After all, he was talking about the killing of children who in his mind have no chance for long-term survival, whose lives aren't worth living.