Dear MichaelMac,
I sympathize with your friend’s situation. What was done to her is a gross injustice. I am very sorry that such a horrible thing had to happen. What happened to your friend is an example of modern thought which categorizes human worth and value on the basis of how much one can contribute to society. If one is productive, he or she is valued, if not the opposite is true.
Your friend was the victim of a secular, liberal mentality that says the “mentally retarded” are not productive and therefore not worth much. The same is said of the elderly, the terminally ill, and the unborn.
Catholics, on the other hand, believe in the intrinsic value of every innocent human life. It doesn’t matter how productive one is. We are against euthenasia, because the sick and elderly are worth as much as the strongest and healthiest man. We are against abortion, because the weekest unborn baby is worth as much as the strongest adult.
When we start prioritizing the value of some lives over that of others, no one is safe. Philosophically, if government can declare that an unborn baby’s life is not worth defending legally, what is to stop it from doing the same with respect to the elderly, the ill, the mentally retarded, or as was done in the days of slavery, one’s ethnicity?
The pro-life cause is a cause that respects the value of every human life (regardless of race, religion, gender, creed, ethnicity, national origin, mental health status, etc.) We must never subject the natural rights of any human being to the choice of another human being. That is a form of slavery.
Best wishes. You and your friend are in my thoughts and prayers.