How Do You Process the Deliberate Legal Murder of a Toddler?

Is Baby Alfie smiling at Jesus?

Alfie Evans is dead -- murdered very systematically by a tyrannical health service backed up by a liberal, gay friendly judge. It's no real surprise, is it? We're accustomed to the headlines. We followed the story of Charlie Gard. 

As a mother and grandmother I have a hard time wrapping my mind around this kind of evil where doctors and judges can snatch the authority over children from good parents who love and care for their little ones and deliberately conspire to kill them. Why?

What possible reason can there be to deny parents the right to seek (and pay themselves) for treatment outside the national health system? 

It's deja vu for me, because it is simply Roe v. Wade for children after birth -- essentially post-birth abortion mandated by the state against the wishes of parents. The list of victims is growing. And it takes me back to that fateful January day in 1973 when seven judges on the Supreme Court legalized murder before birth. 

My husband and I were on the way to our high school CCD class. I don't remember what the lesson plan was for that night, but we ditched it to talk about life and the devastating impact the abortion decision would have on people's attitudes and behavior toward human life across the board.

For many years after that I gave pro-life slide presentations on Roe and abortion. Most people thought the decision only impacted the first few months of pregnancy. I described how the definition of "life and health of the mother" in the companion Doe v. Bolton case meant that abortion was now legal for all nine months of pregnancy. 

Police outside Alder Hey Hospital are the
modern Roman soldiers making sure the
innocent victims die according to the law.

While Roe said abortion could be banned in the third trimester, the decision contained an important condition. The state could ban abortion unless it was necessary to protect the "life or health of the mother." Doe v. Bolton defined that unless to include the woman's age, her mental and emotional health, and her family situation. 

In other words -- during the first six months of pregnancy a woman could have an abortion for no reason and in the last three months she could have an abortion for any reason. What a powerful conjunction, eh? That unless meant abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy. As long as a woman could find an abortionist willing to do the deed, she could kill her baby up until the moment of birth. And there were plenty of Kermit Gosnells, George Tillers, Warren Herns, and LeRoy Carharts willing to accept the blood money and rip the baby limb from limb or stab the little one in the neck and suck out his brains while he was in the birth canal. 

But abortion isn't a single issue. It impacts other issues, so when I spoke I also discussed the quality of life arguments and how inevitable it was that those same arguments would be used to kill the already born who were sick and helpless. And they were! Nancy Cruzan, Hugh Finn, Terri Schiavo, and many other nameless victims whose lives were described as "not worth living" and "better off dead" were killed with the complicity of family members. 

But Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard show that we've moved to a whole new level of killing. It is now mandated by the state against the wishes of parents and family, with police guards stationed outside hospital rooms and nurseries to guarantee the victim dies as planned. It's China's policy wearing the mask of compassion and legality. After all, we're told, the doctors and courts have the best interest of the child (death) at heart -- not loving parents who want to fight for life and healing. What progress we've made in the 48th year after Roe!

While this level of atrocity may seem new, it isn't really new at all. In ancient Rome unwanted newborns were left in particular places to die of exposure or be devoured by wild animals. So many little ones were rescued by Christians that Roman guards were placed around the sites to ensure the children died. The barbaric practice has been resurrected where good parents who love their children are surrounded by police because they are a "flight risk" and might "kidnap" their own children. 

Really?

Charlie holds a St. Jude medal.

God help those who are enabling this evil. They will be judged as they have judged others. 

Charlie and Alfie were both baptized. Those innocent little ones went straight to heaven when they died, and their families can celebrate them as uncanonized saints. I have a hard time thinking it, but I know these little victims are praying for their murderers with the words of Jesus. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." 

We should do the same even if we have to do it through gritted teeth.

St. Alfie and St. Charlie, pray for us.