The ,ANCHOR An Anchor of the Soul, Sure and Firm-St. Paul
Fall River, Mass., Thursday, October 21.,] 97-.1 ". . PRICE 104 Vol. 15, No. 42 © .1971 The Anchor $4.00 pe;yeal
Moral Questions, Rise From Science Gains WASHINGTON (NC)-A touch of tragic reality added impact to theory when experts met here to discuss how society s}l.Ouldtreat and react to the mentally and physicaIJY defective. As scientists, physicians, sociologists, theologians and writers created an eleventh-hour ,atmosphere over the urgency of the matter, a mother in a Washington suburb--despondent over her baby's birth defect - slit the, throats of all three of her chil'dren. '
infant starve over a 15-day period because, the parents did not approve 'the needed surgery. The courts would not overrule the parents' decision because the baby was ·a Mongoloid, Dr. Cooke said when' a fellow symposium participant suggested . that a legislative' body or court answer such dilemmas. Courts, the doctor said, know little about medicine or what labels and scientific classifications mean. There were seven separate but simultaneous discussions on topics covering the rights of the retarded, test-tube blibies, , the right of defective children to be born, to receive medical care and human care, the control of human behavior and the use and . misuse of intelligence tests.
Equally compelling case studies in which someone decided to' play God with 'lif~ ~nd death ' were examined by' the experts '. pulled tog~ther from around the world by The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. 'Foundation in' a ,one"ilay BALTIMORE (NC) - Reports food. Its par~nts refused Iierinis- symposium on human rights,' re~. . f . I . tardatiori and research;, ',' ',' On one panel the labeling and of a newborn Mongoloid child slOn or a simp e corrective operclassification of the mentally releft alone to die in a hospital ation at Johns' Hopkins Hospital, They came' largely' at their tarded was assailed as unrealishere because neither its parents saying it would :,be', unfair to own e-xpenseto' discuss and nor the state want.ect it brought' their . other ",tWo', chiidrento, focus ,concerted attention on the strong reaction from Baltimore's bring' a' Mo~g~loid 'into 'tileir' nlOral' arid ethical' questioris they ' face· because of rapid advance, Cardinal Lawrence Shehan and home. Washington's Cardinal Patrick Doctors could not· operate' ments in science and medicine. O'B.oyle "It is important to re- without legal permission, and the For example, they weighed the mind ourselves that the true infant starved to death. consequences and future impliworth of a human life cannot be Cardinal Shehan said he would cations of a case in Baltimore judged solely in terms of its po- not judge medica~ pers()nnel in-' , wher~ .the parents took upon tential for material productiv- volved in the case, some of themselves the role of God and ity," said Cardinal Shehan in a whom were' reported in news let their mongoloid infant die public statement. "Its true worth accounts to have felt deep an- rather than let doctors perform cannot be judged in terms of its guish at being unable' to help the life-saving surgery on the baby's potential for creating happiness slowly starving infant. The car- digestive tract. in the lives of others." dinal expressed sympathy for the A hundred years ago there The retarded infant was born predicament of the doctors and would have been no choice about with an intestinal obstruction nurses. the baby's life because the corthat prevented it from digesting rective 'surgery was unknown. Turn to Page Eleven But at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where the child was born, Dr. Robert E. Cooke and other doctors and nurses said they were forced 'to watch the
Prelates Ask· Soc·iety'.. Care for Helpl~ss
Experimentation Need's .Vatican Consultation ,
ROME (NC) - The International Catechetical Congress held ~~.recently did not back unrestrained experimentation .in the catechetical field, according to the Vatican official who presided at the meeting. "Contrary to the apparent impressions of some delegates or observers," said Cardinal John Wright,' "the Internnational Catechetical Congress in no way condoned unauthorized experimentation, particularly with .the sacraments of first Confession and first Communion." Cardinal Wright heads the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican office which last June released a "General Catechetical
t·.
Prevailing 'Synod Attitude.:: ROME (NC)- The prevailing tone in the Synod of Bishops has 'been to retain the concept of celibacy for those aspiring to the priesthood in the Latin Church. Now one of the 12 committees of the Synod has rejected the idea of ordaining already married men to the priesthood by a 16 to 2 vote, indica'ting a general shift away from this idea also. The committee, headed by Detroit's Cardinal John Dearden, voted also to delete the phrase "at the present time" so that the recommendation could not
Bishop Pleads For Miss.io,ns·
Directory"':"-a major topic of discussion at the Sept. 20-25 Cate-. chetical congress. "The norms for authorized experimentation, recalled in t~e directory, are not established ,b,ut are set forth in the' ,documents, ·The. ,folloWing letter' from of and since Vatican II concernBishop' 'c'ronin stressing "the ing all experimentation;'" the, People, pf ',Oo'd, as a missionary American cardinal. ,said'. ',jn a people?· in his' plea for aid in statement. ' . . , " the apostolic work of the Church A seven-page' addenda' to' 'the in spreading the Good News of directory, says the Holy' See pre- 'Christ was read. in all chapels fers the' traditiomil 'practice of and churches throughout the young children going to confes- Diocese over the last weekend. sion before their first CommuThe letter follows: nion~ custom which approxi- Dearly beloved ..in Christ, mately 90 American dioceses had Our Lord gave to His apostles preViously dropped. , a command which was clear and Turn to Page Two 'explicit. They were to go 'to the whole world and preach the Gospei' to everyone without exception. This command was for all time, extending to bishops, be interpreted as holding out a , priests and laity' of every generdifferent possibility in the future, ation, The document on the EvangelThis committee and the other ization of Nations of the Second 11 committees. working on the Vatican Council ,reminds us that Synod's first topics, the 'priestly the mission apostolate is a reministry, will report to a further sponsibility which we all share: committee which will bring be- "Every disciple of Christ has the fore the whole Synod all the obligation to do his part in conclusions of the 12 groups. spreading the faith." His HoliThe Synod is still faced with ness Pope Paul VI recently stated a discussion of - world, justice.. that we are members of a missioriary Church which exists to If the SYIlod is to close on October 29, as is foreseen, there make known to all of mankind still remains a great ·deal of the Gospel of salvation. "The Turn to Page Two work to be done.
tic, detrimental and in need of immediate improvement; According to a study released by Dr. Jane R. Mercer of the University of California at 'River· side, the public schools in many cases are guilty of labeling 'as inferior children who grow into adults who differ little from socalled normal persons in their ability to hold jobs and adapt to society. Dr. Mercer said her research indicated that labels' for mental retardation were affixed in disproportionate numbers to children of Mexican -Americans' and blacks. If schools used a lower cut-off point in defining mental retardation and if they considefEid a child's ability to adapt as well as his intelligence test score, she said, the ethnic disproportions in Turn to Page' Eleven '
j
c