Jérôme Lejeune – a giant amongst scientists

JÉRÔME LEJEUNE

a giant amongst scientists

Image source: Fondation Jérôme Lejeune

Jérôme Lejeune was born on 13 June 1926 in

Montrouge near Paris. He studied at the University of Paris and received a doctorate in medicine in 1951 and in science in 1960. At 31-years-of-age he won world acclaim when he identified the cause of Down syndrome, the first chromosomal disease discovered in man (1958 and 1959). During his career he went on to discover the origin of many other chromosomal diseases (such as the Cri du Chat syndrome).

At the time that Lejeune showed that the cells of people with Down syndrome contain 47 chromosomes, one more than the usual human complement of 46, he was working at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), a government funded body which had several thousand researchers working in many different disciplines.

In paying tribute to his work, Dr Charles J Epstein, Professor of Paediatrics at the University of California, said: “Lejeune basically opened up the whole scientific field of what you might call clinical cytogenetics – the field that deals with genetic disorders resulting from different types of chromosome abnormalities.”

From the time of his discovery, Jérôme Lejeune remained a passionate advocate of humane care for people with Down syndrome, the most common cause of lowered intelligence (about one in every 800-1000 babies is born with the disability).

As well as his work at Paris Descartes University, he ran a department at the Institute of Genetics and the Hospital for Sick Children in Paris where he did much of his pioneering work in clinical cytogenetics

“If you really want to attack the Son of Man, one needs to attack the sons of men. Christianity is the only religion that says ‘your model is a child’; when you have been taught to despise the child, there will be no more Christianity.”

PROF JÉRÔME LEJEUNE

and carried out numerous clinical and biochemical studies of people with Down syndrome.

It is believed that Down’s children start off with a normal IQ, which gradually falls until about the age of seven. Prof Lejeune believed that treatment could be developed to stop this deterioration, which he thought was due to the fact that certain enzymes controlled by the extra chromosome 21 have a more harmful effect on the brain function than others. His team in Paris discovered that the extra chromosome carries normal genetic material; however, in his words, “it seems that putting in too much information is just as bad as omitting it”. The excess may not be dangerous in itself, but could starve other biochemical processes. In particular, Prof Lejeune believed that monocarbons (the “bricks” needed to build the brain) could be blocked and he was looking for a way of chemically neutralising the excessive biochemical processes to stop this happening. He was confident that his research was going to develop a treatment that would improve the IQ of Down’s children.

He did not achieve his goal but remained convinced that a full cure would one day be possible. Nonetheless he made great strides in the treatment of children with Down syndrome, improving their IQ and general health.

Lejeune’s research was originally financed by the French Government. At the outset he was one of seven scientists working in Europe on the problem. However, the number gradually declined until he remained alone. Lejeune attributed the fact that scientists were giving up research into intellectual retardation to the spread of the abortion mentality. “This is purely psychological and is not that they lack the power to investigate,” he said. “There is an acceptance by many people that these children should be discarded. This has caused researchers to believe that if you discard these children there is no problem. But this is the biggest mistake possible. The affected children are already here.”

With his militant defence of the right to life of his patients his research grants were finally stopped. Undeterred, he continued in the field and in his final years was dependent on pro-life groups providing much of the funding.

Throughout his life Prof Lejeune won many awards and honours. In France he was a member of the moral and sociological section of the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, as well as of the Academie de Medicine. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He worked with the United Nations Scientific Committee on congenital abnormalities and was a member of various Academies of Science including Boston, London, Rome, Stockholm. His awards included

the William Allan Memorial Award (1969), the Prix Essec de Cancer, the Grand Prix Scientifique de la Ville de Paris, and the Kennedy Award (1962).

Throughout his career, suffering many attacks from members of his profession who sought to diminish his stature because of their support for abortion and the use of the human embryos for experiments, he was courageously supported by Birtha his wife of 42 years, and his two sons and three daughters. Furthermore, his Christian faith was the bedrock of both his personal and public life and he never swerved from Catholic teaching.

Lejeune liked to meditate on the Prologue of Saint John which inspired his life as a doctor, scientist, and Christian. Aware that the mystery of the Incarnation is the cutting edge of the Christian religion, it became clear to Lejeune that one cannot believe in God without loving Christ Incarnate and with Him all our fellow human beings. He had a very acute awareness of what is at stake in the fight that is waged around human life. He knew that its roots are spiritual. In March 1973, during a symposium organised by the Cercle Français de la Presse, and by pro-abortion feminists, Lejeune witnessed a terrible declaration by an influential woman who said: “We want to destroy the Judeo-Christian civilisation. For that we must first destroy the family. To destroy it we must attack it in its weakest point and this weak point is the child who hasn't been born yet. So we are for abortion.” This confirmed what he thought: “If you really want to attack the Son of Man, one needs to attack the sons of men. Christianity is the only religion that says ‘your model is a child’; when you have been taught to despise the child, there will be no more Christianity.”

This is how Prof Jérôme Lejeune became the tireless apostle of the Gospel of Life, travelling the world to declare, without fear of sanctions for his career, the beauty and dignity of all human life. His method was biblical simplicity; to speak the truth, always and everywhere and thus, rebuild intelligences, purify minds from relativism, strengthen the lukewarm and encourage everyone to embrace life.

John Paul II named Lejeune the first president of the new Pontifical Academy for Life a few days before his death. Although a founding pillar of the Academy, he did not have time to be active in its operation. In fact, the Academy quickly turned out to be quite different from the vision of Jérôme Lejeune who wanted to make it a very concrete showcase of what the most efficient science and medicine were capable of achieving without having to transgress respect due to every human being, as the modern world recommends.

Jérôme Lejeune had to choose between his career and the defence of goodness and truth. Again as John Paul II wrote: “Professor Jérôme Lejeune fully assumed the special responsibility of the scholar, ready to become a ‘sign of contradiction’, regardless of the pressures exerted by a permissive society or the ostracism [of which] he was the object”. The coherence of Jérôme Lejeune's life has resulted in a legacy of considerable influence among young people today who never knew him but who want to commit themselves to his continued fight for life.

Jérôme Lejeune died on 3 April 1994, before having seen the political victory of the servants of life, before having found the treatment that would cure his patients. But he died on Easter Sunday morning, the day of the victory of Life.

SOURCES:

1. Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, Human Concern, issues 1984-1994. 2. Aude Dugast, “Il professor Lejeune ‘venerabile’ per la Chiesa”, Radici Cristiane, no.163, May 2021. 3. “Ho vissuto con un santo” – Intervista a Jean-Marie Le Méné, Radici Cristiane, no.163, May 2021.