Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum says the Palin family is showing the nation “both the joy and the difficulty of having a disabled child.”

Santorum says he and his wife four months ago had a daughter, Bella, who was subsequently diagnosed with Trisomy 18, “a syndrome with a mortality rate of more than 90 percent in the first year.” Twelve years ago, they had a son with a “fatal birth defect”.

In a country where some politicians now promise to end suffering, and where our usefulness seems to be measured in dollars, these special individuals stand as complex, mysterious contradictions from a loving God.

They remind us that it is not just our capacity to achieve, but our capacity for sacrificial love that will change the character of America for the good. And that character will inspire true hope – and that hope does not disappoint.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 9:22 am and is filed under Campaign 2008, Down syndrome, abortion, politics, religion, selective termination, trisomy 18. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.