HUMAN BEING IS BORN BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE
Lidia Dudkiewicz, The Editor-in-Chief of ‘Niedziela’
Today in Poland life of ill unborn children is in hands of politicians more than it used to be. As we know, the parliament received a bill draft ‘Stop abortion’, supported by 830 thousand Poles. Now it is awaiting the further legislation process in the Seym Commission of Social Politics and Family. The schedule of the commission does not envisage considering the matter within the nearest half-year. Therefore Kaja Godek, a Polish mother being the face of pro-life activists defending ill children, whose life is endangered, suggests moving consciences members of the mentioned commission. She encourages everybody to write letters to them, mails and make phone calls demanding on doing everything to accelerate ending the works on the bill ‘Stop abortion’. The list of MPs, to whom correspondence should be addressed, can be found in ‘Niedziela’ (‘Sunday’, no. 6, dated 11 February 2018).
Considering the life protection, particularly now, when there appears a chance of defending the weakest, we should hear the voice of dr. Wanda Póltawksa, who said in an interview given to CitizenGO Poland: - Every man has a right to live, even if he is incurably ill, disabled or in the initial, prenatal stadium of development. The value of human life does not belong to the state of health, beauty or human talents. Everybody is exceptional, unusual or invulnerable. Ruthless motifs of the right to every man’s life, were included by the nestor of the pro-life movement in the obvious statement: ‘- The man does not live because he was born but he is born only because he is alive. One can be surprised that nobody has formulated it so clearly so far. Hence there is our duty to defend this particularly defenceless man.
We all know that testimonies speak the best. So, I suggest letting a young mother speak, who fought for life of her two ill children and she had to match waiting for the birth of her third child with her getting prepared for her own death. It was 28-year-old Italian woman Chiara Petrillo who died in 2012. During prenatal examinations, it was uncovered that her firstborn daughter Mary was suffering a severe defect. It turned out that the child did not have a well-formed skull which resulted in having no chance to live after birth. Mother and father of the child did not consider abortion suggested to them in a doctor’s consulting room. They considered the day of their daughter’s birth as one of the most beautiful days in their life. They were holding their daughter in their arms for half an hour and managed to have their child baptized. During the funeral they were wearing white clothes, worshipping God for the gift of parenthood. After a few months the situation somehow repeated. Their son David was born with various unformed inner organs in his body. His parents accepted him, the ill child, with great love again, reconciled with God’s will. The boy lived 38 minutes. Whereas when son Francis was to be born, cancer was detected in the body of Chiara. Doctors advised her to have earlier delivery, so that she could begin chemotherapy. Mother decided to wait till her natural delivery not to bring any harm to her child. Her healthy son was born, and mother died a year later. ‘I would like to tell mothers whose babies died, that we became mothers, when getting our children as gift. It does not matter how long the child lived’. This is a testimony of a woman who loved every life, and was saying to God: ‘I do not understand, but I agree’. After five years since Chiara’s death, her beatification process was begun.
Translation: Aneta Amrozik
Niedziela 8/2018 (25 II 2018)