The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-05-29

InscrutibIe Fate
Misery Their Lot
Bearing the Cross
Public Responsibility
By M. E. Tracy

Two doctors nave Sd1O lney SllOoAu
be allowed to die, the Medich twins;
the father said he would be glad to
hear they were dead, and the mother
lapsed into unconsciousness when
she first learned they were hope
lessly bound together.
From thousands comes a horrlfled
protest. The right to live is sacred,
they declare, and the processes OF
nature or will of God must not be
interfered with.
But these thousands do not have
to pay the price, do not have to go
through life joined back to back, or
support children who have been
made helpless by such a caprice OF
inscrutible fate.
It Is their happy lot to assume no
greater responsibility in the matter
than tell a poor father, distra1t
mother and a pair of inarticulate
babies what is right.
T. T. i
The father and mother can speak
for themselves, though only in an
overwhelmed, grief-stricken sort or
way, but the babies cannot.
1t will take the babies long time
to realize the misery of their exist
ence, the mercilessness- of those who
let them live in the name or mercy.
If they could foresee the tragic,
tear.dimmed years, and speak with
thew
say about the right to live?
Unless some show, or circus, picks
them up to put on exhibition as a
freak, to collect dimes from the NOR
bidly curious, out of which they Will
get a small and cruelty earned snare,
what is there ahead of them but pow
erty and isolation?
l. T. j.
These babies were not born as
YOU and I, free to show the first
sign af independence by creeping
about the house, free to climb up
by the rungs of chair and fall
down all by ourselves. free to run
and romp in the yard, free TO get
away from everybody and think
things out, free to make love, with
nobody but the righp one near.
They cannot even twist and turn
when the bed is uncomfortable, but
must sleep just so, half -sldeWlse on
their backs or half f-sideWise on their
face.
Neither of them can ever go any
where the other doesn't want TO ana
both can. never go anywhere other
people are present without being
hurt and humiliated by staring eyes.
When the end comes, they cannot
even enjoy the privilege OF dying
alone. The awfulness Of their pre-
dicament consists in the fact that
YOU, don't want to know whether to
refer to them as they, she or 1t.
Still, making allowance for all
this, the protesting thousands are
right. The time has not come when
we dare making the arrest OF anomo-
lous or monstrous life a part OF the
public policy.
If we were to openly approve such
a. privilege it would be made the
excuse for all kinds Of murder.
Parents who didn't want chill
dren would be quick to exaggerate
defects in order to get rid of them
and unscrupulous doctors could be
found to do the trick.
The privileg is exercised, OF course,
and has been since the dawn OF In
telligence, but not in the way that
calls for public sanction.
a
form there can be but one answer,
but that answer should include more
than mere academic DEGREES in IA
vor of the right to live.
It should include a decent living
for the poor misshapen things we
compel to bear the cross and relief
for their parents at public expense.
: :
Civilization has been shamed by
nothing worse than the display of
1nonstrosities for money.
Yet there has been no other way
for them to get along.
II we must insist upon their right
to live let us help carry it through
and not shirk the game, while claim
ing the name.
Let the thousands put their hands
in their pockets, as we'll as on their
hearts, when they cry that the
Medich twins must survive.
Let them not force a decision and
then leave a small wage Garner and
his wife to carry it out or to be
driven by sheer desperation to the
freak market.
If we must spare children whom
nature has cursed with handicaps
that absolutely bar them from nor
NAL existence in order to preserve
an ideal, let US do the job right and
make the proper provision.
Two or three thousand dollars
year would insure these Medich
twins all the necessities and all the
comfort they can hope to get out
of life.
If the ideal isn't worth that
much, it isn't worth anything.
Money talks.