A Triad of Evil…Delivered On My iPad

On Monday, a verdict was reached in the case of Kermit Gosnell: guilty of the murder of three babies, guilty of involuntary manslaughter  in the overdose death of a female patient, and guilty of a host of other lesser charges.

Did you read the grand jury report? I tried but had a difficult time with all of the wretched details. However, I can tell you with certainty – just by looking at the photos – that Gosnell was killing babies well beyond the legal limit of 24 weeks. Anyone who has spent any time in a NICU could tell you that, too.

Babies at 24 weeks gestation don’t have fat yet.

Look at the photo on page 85 of the grand jury report and compare it to this photo of Sarah Kate shortly after her birth at 30 weeks and you’ll see what I mean.

I thought I’d be relieved and pleased if the jury returned a guilty verdict – I feared that they wouldn’t, at least not in the cases of the babies. I did hope that the jury would see the answer to what seemed a simple question to me: if the babies were already dead, why would their spines need to be cut?

When the verdict was announced, I was relieved…a little. But Kermit Gosnell is only one man, and because there’s little new under the sun, it’s hard to believe that he’s the only person out there, preying on desperation, making millions on the slaughter of innocents. Remember, too, that he wasn’t able to do it alone. His clinic hadn’t been inspected in over fifteen years.

Years of heads turning the other way enabled him to continue on.

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Meanwhile, over in the UK, there’s a monster in government, and the Cornwall electorate doesn’t seem to mind.

Cornwall councillor Colin Brewer resigned earlier this year following intense pressure for suggesting that ‘disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down.’ Brewer was initially defiant, but eventually (after 18 months…) apologized and stepped down.

But guess what? He’s back.

Brewer was re-elected earlier this month and, lest anyone think he misspoke or had a temporary lapse the first time, he’s got more to say on the subject of children with disabilities. From the Mirror:

He launched his latest rant in a chat with Disability News Service where he said farmers deal with deformed lambs by “smashing them against a wall”.

He added: “If they have a misshapen lamb, they get rid of it. Bang.”

Mr Brewer discussed his views with a farmer from his Wadebridge East ward in Cornwall.

The councillor added: “He didn’t see a lot wrong with what I said, because it is something they do every day.

“We are just animals. He has a point, you can’t have lambs running around with five legs and two heads.”

When asked if he could seriously compare a disabled child to a deformed lamb, independent Mr Brewer said: “The cost has to be evaluated.

“It is not something I would like to do but there’s only so much in the bucket.”

Asked whether there was an argument for killing disabled children with high support needs to save cash, he replied: “Yes.”

If Brewer had resigned and disappeared from public life, it would be easy to say (as some people are saying about Gosnell) that he was a horrible aberration. It would be easy to dismiss his views as extreme. But he admitted to saying that disabled children should be put down and resigned, and then was re-elected just a few months later.

What does that say about the people of Cornwall?

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I’m currently reading, on the recommendation of Mr. Andi, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Although we (should) all know the basic framework of the story of Hitler’s rise to power, it’s hard to wrap our minds around how he achieved it. He was a brilliant, ruthless, and devious mad man, to be sure, but he was also clear from early on what his ideals were – he spelled them out in Mein Kampf, which was first published in 1925 – several years before he became chancellor. Among them, he stated that the destruction of the weak and sick was far more humane than their protection.

Yet few challenged him. Most ignored, excused, or even embraced his ideals.

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I don’t really have a point to today’s blog post. In fact, I almost didn’t post today because my outlook is dark and gloomy – not a great frame of mind for writing about “Bringing the Sunshine.” But these three things – the book I started on Sunday, the Kermit Gosnell verdict, and the news story that popped up in my reader about Colin Brewer – spoke to me, reminding me that there is evil in the world. Knowing that and feeling it so forcefully on this Tuesday morning, I felt the need to remind you.

Be ever vigilant, my friends.