You can measure the value of a society by how the weakest members are treated.  Since 1989, Chile has been a country that protects these precious souls, but President Bachelet of Chile has decided to join the sick and depraved people of this world who have targeted disabled children for annihilation.  Chile’s Cámara de Diputados has linked arms with President Bachelet to vote for a bill that would allow disabled children to be killed in the womb by legalizing abortion in these cases.  Does a decent society protect or destroy its most vulnerable citizens? 

My wife and I have a little girl named Faith -- now 7 years old.  While Faith was still in the womb, doctors believed that she was facing a grave medical condition called Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome.  This is a chromosome abnormality that is often referred to as “Incompatible with Life” or a “Fatal Fetal Anomaly.”  We were pushed to have testing while she was still in utero because they wanted us to end her life, but we were not interested in ending her life, and we knew that even performing this test would risk Faith’s life so we opted for no testing. 

When Faith was born, everyone saw that something was wrong.  We found out a couple of weeks later that Faith, in fact, had Trisomy 18.  Even at this point after Faith was born, we were being encouraged not to treat our daughter.  Doctors did not think that we should offer her even some of the most basic medical care to help our child live and thrive.  We even had a doctor who told us that “you will only prolong her life.”  Seriously, isn’t that what the medical industry is all about, prolonging life?

You see, in the USA, we have allowed this perverse and demented view of life to take hold in our country through legalized abortion.  We have created a culture of death that causes many in our society to think of life as having little value and they are willing to judge the worth of another person’s life based upon their valueless view.  So now in the United States, doctors kill over 90% of children like my daughter Faith who have a disability.  Before they can even breathe their first breath, doctors murder our disabled children in the womb. 

When I was a young boy in 1973, abortion was legalized in the United States.  Where I grew up in Ohio, we had a local school that sent buses around to pick up disabled children and take them to be taught.  Today, the school no longer exists because our culture has literally wiped most of the disabled children from the face of our nation.  This is the legacy that we are leaving because abortion has created a selfish, narcissistic people in the USA -- so consumed with selves that citizens do not even care about the most vulnerable people among us.

The world has become a very scary place for disabled children.  Good people of Chile, do not let your president turn your country into a killing field for disabled children.  Don’t allow yourselves to be deceived that this is the best choice for everyone involved.  This is a LIE.  Your country will not be made better through abortion; rather, it will become degraded and dehumanized.  Your people will not have better lives because disabled children do not exist; they will simply have been deprived of the opportunity to develop compassion and to know the unconditional love of a disabled child who has only love to offer.

Tell your Senate to end this self-destructive bill that will eat away at your society until you have no value for life.  Stop President Bachelet from taking you down the road that leads to destruction.  Do NOT become like the rest of the world, but be an example to the world by loving your disabled children.  I can promise you one thing; you will be a better society and people by protecting your most vulnerable citizens.

http://www.salvarel1.blogspot.com/2016/03/un-presidente-que-asesina-sus.html

BIO:  Brad Smith is in sales for a Christian radio station, and a Board Member of Save The 1.  He and his wife Jesi have 5 children, and are bloggers and pro-life speakers for Save The 1.  Their own website is www.keepingourfaith.comwww.keepingourfaith.com.

We have a friend, Kayse, here in Michigan who has a beautiful little 2 year old girl named Lila.  

Kayse sent us an update the other day (Saturday September 27^th) because Lila has been sick for the last couple of weeks.  Most people have read about the viruses making their way around the country and get a little nervous about their children getting one of these viruses that have put so many children in the hospital.  Well, we pay close attention to these updates that we receive because Lila has Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) which is the same chromosome abnormality that our 5 ½ years old daughter Faith has.  These respiratory viruses can be particularly difficult for our children.      

Lila has been hospitalized twice this month for a total of about 11 days for a bronchiole infection and lack of oxygenation. Wednesday evening she was discharged from the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) on a small amount of oxygen. Doctors told Kayse to continue with care at home and to return if she gets a fever of any kind or if she gets worse at all.  Well her oxygen saturation started dropping into the high 70's which is very low since our bodies need to operate in the mid 90s.  Kayse upped her oxygen and gave her a breathing treatment. Then Lila developed a low grade temperature so they called the after-hours pediatrician number, and the doctor asked them to go to the hospital. When they arrived, the resident and attending doctors in ER wanted to have her admitted.  The ER doctors had the PICU resident and attending physicians come down to look at Lila.  In the meantime, the nurse had not come into the room yet, and the respiratory therapist gave Lila a breathing treatment and stated that her lungs sounded coarse which means she had mucous in her lungs.

The PICU doctors arrived and claimed that Lila had a left ear infection and wanted to send her on her way.  Knowing that the respiratory therapist said her lungs sounded coarse, Kayse did not accept this and explained her fears about how many of our trisomy children pass away from respiratory problems, and she did not want that to be Lila.  At that point, the doctor from the PICU looked Kayse in the eye and asked if she knew anything about trisomy 18 children and their life expectancies, and how Lila is past her life expectancy. Obviously, Kayse was very upset and angry.  She understands more about Trisomy 18 than this doctor because she has been living it day in and day out for the last 2 years.  Not only is this an insulting question to Kayse about her understanding, but worse, it is an attack on the value of Lila’s very life.  

Kayse explained that until this illness Lila has been a very healthy and happy child. She has more than proven herself, time and time again…like she should even have to prove herself to earn treatment? Is this doctor the arbiter of whose life is worthy of treatment?  Should Lila now have treatment withheld so she will simply die and go away?  Why should Lila not be offered the same level of care as any other child?  Why shouldn't she be given steroids to help her feel better faster? Why shouldn't they run tests? How is it OK to stick her in a room for 4 hours and never offer her Tylenol for her fever and discomfort? How is it ok that her nurse never even came in to assess her? How is Lila’s life worth less than the other children in the hospital?

As I read Kayse’s update and what this doctor said, I could not help, but think about my own illnesses during my childhood.  I had pneumonia 4 or 5 times between ages 1-7.  My parents were visiting this weekend for my 14 year old son’s birthday so I asked them if anyone ever suggested that I was past my life expectancy or did they simply treat my multiple illnesses?  They made it clear that no doctor ever even suggested such an idea and they simply treated me as a child who needed help.  I had pneumonia more times as a child than my 5 ½ year old Trisomy 18 daughter Faith has had it.  So why was my life worth saving? Is it because I have the ability to write this story?  Lila and my daughter Faith are lovely little girls who have tremendous value because they were created in the image of God.

Lila is now resting at home with her parents.  Please pray for Lila that she will recover quickly and for her family that they will be able to rest and have peace.

LifeNews Note: Brad Smith and his wife Jesi are Save The 1 (www.savethe1.com) pro-life speakers from Rochester Hills, Michigan.  Learn more about Brad and Jesi at www.keepingourfaith.com.

We thought they were helping.  Every time we took our daughter Faith to the hospital for her illness, they would nurse her back to health.  Faith has Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome).  Trisomy 21 is Downs Syndrome.  Trisomy 18 is much harsher with 90% of these children not reaching their first birthday.  At this time, Faith was 2 ½ years old and began to have some serious illnesses that almost took her life several times.  The hospital did some basic things to help her get over the illness and we thought that they were giving her the necessary care any other child would receive.  However when I had an opportunity to ask Rick Santorum for some advice since his little girl Bella also has Trisomy 18,  Rick gave me advice that I had never heard from the mouth of a single doctor.  I was somewhat skeptical when he first shared the list of things that we should be doing for Faith, but he convinced me with some very straight forward and honest comments.  He said if we didn’t do this that we were going to lose our daughter...now you know how he convinced me.

After receiving this list of items, I went to visit my wife, Jesi, and Faith in the hospital during my lunch later that day.  When we showed this list to the doctors, they told us that NOBODY does this. Huh?  We pushed to get the doctors to help us, but after a third hospital visit and a near death experience for Faith caused by the same problem, we finally figured out that they would not treat her.  I know, I know…why did we go back to them?  Well, you expect your doctors to help you and parents in our situation often trust, but need to realize that trust MUST be earned (as we have learned).

This is when we learned about “Slow Code,” although we had not discovered this term yet.  Because of our experience with multiple hospitals, Jesi and I began a journey to get the law changed in Michigan.  During our journey, Jesi researched medical journals on Trisomy 18 which is when we learned the term Slow Code.  Slow Code is when the medical providers offer the appearance of treatment, but knowingly administer the treatment so slowly that it is useless to the patient.  This may sound crazy and like something we might make up.  We not only learned the term from their industry journals, but we experienced it.  There are times in a hospital where you might hear CODE BLUE for an emergency, but why is it you never hear CODE SLOW?  Hospitals hide this practice in a deceitful way so they can inflict their decision on the patient.  This is not care, but lethal neglect or intentional death which I have always termed murder.

In one article of the Journal of Perinatology, a pediatric ethics committee discussed an option of Slow Code as a possible solution in the case of an infant with poor prognosis.  CPR had been offered to the parents and was later withheld by way of a DNR placed on the patient by doctors.  The committee debated this decision, but only from the perspective that CPR should probably have never been offered in the first place.  So here we have a committee of medical “caregivers” suggesting that forms of care should not even be offered to patients based upon their value(less) judgment.  Withholding  medical care and suggestions for treatment is now the medically ethical way to handle a patient?  In the end, this particular committee decided that it is deceitful to use Slow Code.  Ya think?  The fact that this suggestion was even considered legitimate enough to be discussed is troubling.

This brings us back to our daughter Faith.  We were not even offered what we now know to be pretty basic treatment for today’s medicine.  Our daughter Faith had severe sleep apnea which most novices in sleep apnea could have determined.  She had a small jaw which was obvious to anyone with even a little experience.  Our problem, we were not even novices at this point and we had no clue.  We cornered a doctor for an hour in the doctor’s office before he finally told us that if he were in our shoes, he would go to the other hospital.  Really?  After three trips to his hospital and on the verge of a fourth, we finally had some honesty.  Our daughter needed a sleep study which showed the necessity for a Bipap (very similar to a Cpap) to help her breath at night.  When we reached the other hospital, they could not understand why we were not provided with this help for our daughter.  Faith is now 5 years old and doing things that the first group of doctors said would never be possible.  Well, they were right about one thing.  She never would have started walking or probably even have survived had we followed their advice, or lack thereof.

Brad Smith; Married for 16 years to Jesi and the proud father of 5 children living in Rochester Hills, Michigan; Save The 1 pro-life speaker, pro-life blogger, and Board Member