“I see only one way left to save them, and that is to cure them. The task is immense—but so is Hope.”
This is what Servant of God Dr. Jerome Lejeune said of his work and mission to serve and heal the weakest members of society, the unborn and those with Down Syndrome.
Hope indeed was a central theme of the October 18 lecture “Down Syndrome as a Pro-Life Cause,” hosted by Divine Mercy Care and featuring Lejeune’s wife, Madame Birthe Lejeune, and Tepeyac OB/GYN’s Dr. John Bruchalski.
The father of modern genetics and deeply pro-life, Dr. Lejeune discovered the extra chromosome 21 responsible for Down syndrome. He received many awards because of his work, but was denied the Nobel Prize in Medicine because of his vocal pro-life stance.
“We want to thank God today – him who is the Author of life – for everything that Professor Lejeune has been for us, for everything that he did to defend and to promote the dignity of human life.”
– Pope St. John Paul II
Madame Lejeune spoke about her husband’s legacy, his early encounters with Down syndrome patients, and his commitment to love the patient and hate the disease. She spoke of her husband’s heartbreak when his genetic discoveries were used to abort babies with Down syndrome.
An article from August 2017 reported that in Iceland, nearly 100 percent of pregnant women who received a positive test for Down syndrome aborted their child. Dr. Bruchalski said, in America, that number is around 67 percent.
Nevertheless, Dr. Bruchalski spoke of the “new season of hope” in health care because there is greater concern and growing care for patients with Trisomy 21, care with translates to witness and action. This mission is specifically carried by the Jerome Lejeune Foundation, an organization dedicated to the research, care, and advocacy of Down syndrome and its patients.
Dr. Bruchalski said it is time to learn and appreciate the link between merci and mercy – thanksgiving, and true mercy at the service of life and society’s most innocent.
CMF CURO is committed, like Dr. Jerome Lejeune and all who uphold his work, to advancing integrated health care that respects the dignity of all and to promoting the Body of Christ in health care, so that we can rebuild a Culture of Life and have health care fully alive.
We pray for Servant of God Dr. Lejeune’s intercession and for his swift Beatification.
