Editorial

By Paul Schratz

Will it be a case of "Women for Hillary?" Will it be "Youth for Obama?" How about "Pastors for Huckabee" or "Veterans for McCain?"
Canadian viewers of the American presidential primaries will have little difficulty being turned off by the polarized nature of the process that helps determine the next leader of the United States.

While all may not be perfect in Canada, we benefit by the somewhat reduced ferocity of media coverage and a slightly less superficial political process.

Consider how little a role in the U.S. debates certain important social and moral issues of the day are playing. Whatever President George W. Bush's failings, he has signed into law significant protections for human life at its most vulnerable stages.

Barack Obama's voting record, on the other hand, shows he won't even support legislation to protect a baby born alive after an unsuccessful abortion attempt.

All the more reason for candidates to be questioned on their attitude to such issues, which become more complex and unpredictable every day.

The growing push for pre-natal testing is one of them. Even people who are staunchly in the pro-abortion camp have qualms about our improving ability to identify illnesses and conditions before birth, allowing parents to conduct search and destroy missions on their unborn infants.

When the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada last year called for pre-natal screening for Down Syndrome for all pregnant women, even the pro-abortion Vancouver Sun expressed reservations.

We already have abortions performed because the baby has a cleft palate or is the wrong sex. Now add Down Syndrome. What next?

Autism possibly. Headlines last week preached the wonders of a discovery that could make possible the elimination of anyone with autism before they're born.

Those who know someone with autism will tell you how difficult it is to deal with the disorder, which disables as many as one child in 150. Yet like so many other conditions, it's subject to the love of parents, who perform miracles every day.

Take a look around you at people on the bus, at work, or at hockey games. Most of those people suffer from one ailment or another. Most would likely be screened as having a disposition toward some condition. Once we start drawing the line on who should be eliminated and who should not, where do we stop? Today it's Down syndrome and autism; tomorrow it might be arthritis, depression, or alcoholism.

God is the giver and taker of life, and of crosses and crowns. He gives us our talents and treasures, and allows our tribulations, asking that we accept them and manage them with His help.

He also gives mankind the gift of intelligence, and expects us to use it in conformity with His law.

Pre- or post-natal testing is a gift when it's used to determine what conditions exist and how to best treat them. It's an abuse of that gift if it leads only to the destruction of His greatest gift - life.

Playing God is not a game for amateurs. Let's not forget that when it comes time to choose our next political leaders.