Obama, Notre Dame, and the Culture of Life

On May 17, 2009, in the campus of the University of Notre Dame, my wife and I will be seated at the Joyce Center among thousands of students, faculty, parents and alumni, listening to the President of the United States address the graduating class of 2009.

Our daughter, Lauren Marie, would have received her diploma by then. However, two decades earlier, if President Obama’s “culture of death” philosophy had won over Notre Dame’s Catholic “culture of life” theology, our daughter would never have graduated. Simply because she would never have been born!

In 1987, we found out that my wife Lucie was pregnant. Previously, she had suffered a few miscarriages. I was a surgical fellow at the University of California San Diego at the time and we sought the help of pediatricians at the university medical center. Well-respected professors in pediatrics and genetics recommended an amniocentesis. They felt that it was important to know if Lucie was carrying a defective embryo, and therefore at risk for yet another miscarriage.

We both were troubled. What if the amniocentesis confirmed the worse – that the fetus was defective? The answer from the experts was straightforward: a therapeutic abortion. Why carry a risky pregnancy to term, which would likely end in spontaneous abortion anyway? And if the fetus survived, did we really want to raise a retarded baby, who would be a burden to carry for the duration of his or her unproductive life?

Our medical colleagues could not even understand why we were reluctant to have Lucie undergo an amniocentesis. What was there to think about?

Lucie as a pediatrician and I as a surgeon were familiar with the medical science on which the experts based their recommendations. We were also practicing Catholics and aware of the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on abortion and the protection of human life.

If we proceeded with an amniocentesis, there would be the minor risk of an induced abortion. If the study confirmed that the fetus was normal and healthy, that would be great news. However, if the fetus were shown to be defective, would we then have it aborted?

We thought long and hard. We prayed about it. The medical arguments for amniocentesis and potential abortion were compelling. The Catholic and ethical considerations were convincing. Even if the baby turned out to be physically disabled or mentally retarded, we ultimately decided that we would accept God’s gift of life in gratitude, even if the future did not look too bright.

To this day, we are glad we made the decision to “keep the baby”. The pregnancy went smoothly and Lucie delivered a bouncing, robust, and healthy baby girl. We have four children and that baby is our only girl. What a bundle of joy she is!

Lauren Marie graduated in the top of her class in grade school and high school. She has been in the Dean’s List at the University of Notre Dame. Far from being the burden that medical experts had feared, she has been the jewel in our eyes and a delightful gift to our lives.

Yet, had we followed the promptings of the “culture of death” rather than the “culture of life”, we wonder what our lives would have been without her.

It is estimated that over three thousand abortions occur in the United States every day. The majority are not the rape or incest cases that pro-choice or pro-abortion advocates, the liberal media and Planned Parenthood are so concerned about. Most abortions are the result of lack of information regarding viable alternatives to abortion, such as adoption. Many are based on unfounded fears – will the baby be defective? How can I financially support the baby? How much of a burden will the baby be? What will my parents think? What will the future be like?

The controversy surrounding President Obama’s commencement address at Notre Dame, from my viewpoint, is not so much about the university’s traditional invitation to a sitting president, which dates back to President Dwight Eisenhower. Rather, it is about Notre Dame’s awarding the President an honorary doctor of law degree. How in the world can the foremost Catholic University in the world justify conferring such an honor on a politician whose major policies to date have trampled on Catholic ethics and principles?

As an Illinois state legislator, Barack Obama personally worked to block legislation banning the killing of disabled newborns that survived botched abortions. In the US Senate, the senator from Chicago was involved in fundraising to continue the practice of partial-birth abortion (an obstetrical technique to deliver a live infant except for the head which, in utero, is incised and suctioned resulting in death). As a presidential candidate, Obama promised the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act that would eliminate all existing regulations from the practice of abortion.

In the President’s first 100 days, he has issued executive orders facilitating the funding of international abortion agencies and for stem cell research utilizing human embryos. President Barack Obama disregards scientific data that confirm the embryo’s human characteristics or the developing consensus that adult stem cells offer a viable therapeutic and ethical alternative to embryonic stem cells.

At present, President Obama is preparing the federal government to eliminate conscience protections from physicians and from clinics and hospitals morally opposed to carrying out abortions. Furthermore, he has appointed to the White House and key federal agencies bureaucrats and lawyers recommended by extremist abortion advocacy groups.

Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution of the United States and the President should be allowed to speak his piece at Notre Dame. However, his record speaks for itself and should be more than sufficient to persuade the University of Notre Dame not to confer an honorary degree which exemplifies its recipient as the embodiment of the Catholic values of the University of Notre Dame and the ethical and moral aspirations of its students, graduates, and alumni.

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