!!!!

The faTe of Two SeTS of TwinS
by Donald DeMarco, PhD
Ethics & Medics
Volume 37, Number 2
February 2012

Il Trovatore conveys—in most dramatic terms—the horror of prejudice, moral blindness, and violent death. It shows the implacable way in which evil unfolds, leaving the audience with the unforgettable message that dehu- manization and homicide are terrible things and should never, under any circumstances, be regarded as accept- able strategies. Yet in the case of abortion in the modern world, these terrible things are conveniently regarded as mere choices for which a mother has rights of execution. The Australian mother is now hoping to receive financial compensation for the doctor’s mistake. She does not regard the exercise of her rights as wrongs.

Is it possible for a contemporary Verdi to create an opera in which abortion provides the impetus for a series of horrifying personal tragedies? In today’s climate, the answer is an emphatic No. It would simply be too politically incorrect; it would offend audiences rather than enlighten them. It could not be staged, for fear of infuriating too many people. Since Il Aborto will not be an opera, parallel examples must be used to illustrate the evil dynamic of abortion. Il Trovatore may still be useful in this regard.

The Positive Outcome

Birth, as it is often said, is a miracle. A baby is born— a living, breathing, honest-to-goodness baby that you can hold in your arms. Just prior to delivery, he was something parents were expecting but whose reality was still concealed. He was something that was swelling under his mother’s heart. But he was not something that anyone would call “cute” or “adorable.” He was something that was growing larger and heavier all the time and causing mommy a great deal of discomfort and anxiety. The sudden transition from an unidentifiable shape to a baby does seem miraculous. But that is our perception, not that of nature.

The real miracle is the development: two fragments known as sex cells come together and begin sorting out the step-by-step process of organizing the sequence in which trillions of cells will form a splendidly integrated human being. Scientists tell us that the one-cell zygote, the starting point in this extraordinary development, contains enough information to fill a thousand volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. What unseen principle guides this development so that the eyelashes, toe nails, lips, kidneys, lungs, etc., all arrive at the right time, appear in the right place, and operate in the right way? The baby emerges not as a Picasso portrait but as a perfectly unified, properly functioning, unique human being.

Dr. William A. Rowane is an obstetrician who has been delivering babies for nearly fifty years. One of the most thrilling experiences of his life, by his own admission, was his first obstetrical delivery when he was a senior medical student. It was a home delivery in an old dilapidated tenement section along the muddy banks of the Missouri River in Kansas City. Consider carefully his words: “As I waited patiently for this extraordinary miracle to transpire I began to realize that this conception brought together two human cells each on the edge of death, but by their

In Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore, Count di Luna condemns a gypsy woman to be burned at the stake on the spurious grounds that she bewitched the younger of his two sons, Manrico, causing him to become ill. As the gypsy woman is about to die, she enjoins her daughter, Azucena, to avenge her. Azucena accepts her mother’s dying command, kidnaps Manrico, and carries him off to hurl him into a furnace. Her mother’s words, “Avenge thou me!” resound in her fevered mind, blinding her to what she is doing, and as a result she mistakenly incinerates her own child whom she had also taken with her. Azucena is horrified when she realizes what she has done. Sorrowful, she decides to keep Manrico and raise him as her own.

Years later in the story, Manrico, having grown to man- hood, vies for the hand of the beautiful Leonora. The now reigning Count, wanting to wed Leonora himself and not knowing that Manrico is actually his brother, exercises the power of his position to have Manrico executed. As the opera ends, Azucena, whom the Count also sentences to death, utters her dying words, “The victim was thy brother. Thou art avenged, O mother.”

What gives impetus to the opera’s plot is the elder Count’s conviction that certain people are of less value than another because of some accident of circumstance, such as being a gypsy. Il Trovatore, like all grand opera, conveys a moral message—in this case, that the evil of dehumanizing others spreads its venom and contaminates everyone within reach. Likewise, in his novel, Couples, John Updike expressed his concern about the contagion that abortion spreads: “Death, once invited in, leaves his muddy bootprints everywhere.” 1 Evil is never content with a single victim. Nor does virtue flower when rooted in a soil of vice.
The Negative Outcome

It was recently reported that an almost full-term, healthy twin fetus was mistakenly aborted at a Melbourne hospital.2 The mother chose to abort one of her thirty-two- week-old twins because doctors advised her that it had a serious congenital heart defect. However, the healthy twin was accidentally aborted. Once the mistake was discovered, the mother had the unhealthy twin aborted as well.

When violence is accepted as a modus operandi, the death count will inevitably include unintended casualties. This incident is but one of many tragedies that is the natural consequence of the abortion mentality. Would it be too coarse to suggest that the healthy fetus was the victim of “friendly fire”? In the Australian case, one child was dehumanized because of a health problem, and tragically, like in the opera, both that child and its sibling were killed.

Il Trovatore conveys—in most dramatic terms—the horror of prejudice, moral blindness, and violent death. It shows the implacable way in which evil unfolds, leaving the audience with the unforgettable message that dehu- manization and homicide are terrible things and should never, under any circumstances, be regarded as accept- able strategies. Yet in the case of abortion in the modern world, these terrible things are conveniently regarded as mere choices for which a mother has rights of execution. The Australian mother is now hoping to receive financial compensation for the doctor’s mistake. She does not regard the exercise of her rights as wrongs.

Is it possible for a contemporary Verdi to create an opera in which abortion provides the impetus for a series of horrifying personal tragedies? In today’s climate, the answer is an emphatic No. It would simply be too politically incorrect; it would offend audiences rather than enlighten them. It could not be staged, for fear of infuriating too many people. Since Il Aborto will not be an opera, parallel examples must be used to illustrate the evil dynamic of abortion. Il Trovatore may still be useful in this regard.

The Positive Outcome

Birth, as it is often said, is a miracle. A baby is born— a living, breathing, honest-to-goodness baby that you can hold in your arms. Just prior to delivery, he was something parents were expecting but whose reality was still concealed. He was something that was swelling under his mother’s heart. But he was not something that anyone would call “cute” or “adorable.” He was something that was growing larger and heavier all the time and causing mommy a great deal of discomfort and anxiety. The sudden transition from an unidentifiable shape to a baby does seem miraculous. But that is our perception, not that of nature.

The real miracle is the development: two fragments known as sex cells come together and begin sorting out the step-by-step process of organizing the sequence in which trillions of cells will form a splendidly integrated human being. Scientists tell us that the one-cell zygote, the starting point in this extraordinary development, contains enough information to fill a thousand volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. What unseen principle guides this development so that the eyelashes, toe nails, lips, kidneys, lungs, etc., all arrive at the right time, appear in the right place, and operate in the right way? The baby emerges not as a Picasso portrait but as a perfectly unified, properly functioning, unique human being.

Dr. William A. Rowane is an obstetrician who has been delivering babies for nearly fifty years. One of the most thrilling experiences of his life, by his own admission, was his first obstetrical delivery when he was a senior medical student. It was a home delivery in an old dilapidated tenement section along the muddy banks of the Missouri River in Kansas City. Consider carefully his words: “As I waited patiently for this extraordinary miracle to transpire I began to realize that this conception brought together two human cells each on the edge of death, but by their union all the strands and webs of two lives were folded into one complex human being with a physical body and an immortal soul. This is the supreme example of the perfect order in the universe and the presence of the Divine Architect and I was permitted to play a humble role.” 3

Miracles, however, may require payment in the form of worry, sweat, and sleepless nights. Making room for God’s artistry can be quite stressful. Twins and the likelihood of delivery by cesarean section were the double worry that my son and his wife recently faced. This news increased their anxiety on a daily basis. The need for prayer was not only evident but also urgent.

St. Raymond Nonnatus is the patron saint of pregnant women and of childbirth. His appended name, Nonnatus, means “not born” in Latin. He was delivered by cesarean section in the early thirteenth century in Portella, Spain. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1239, and his cult was approved in 1625. Today there are St. Raymond Birthing and Training Centers in the Philippines and other places. St. Gerard, who came into the world through a normal birth, is also a patron saint of expectant mothers. Prayers are salutary as well as calming, and it is always good to call upon God and his saints.

On October 21, 2011, Paul Alexander Gerard came into the world at 7 lbs. 15 oz. at 12:52 PM. Two minutes later (are women always just a little bit late?), his sister Kiera Maria Faustina arrived, weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. It was quite a ride for the parents—Frances and my son, Paul. But everything went as well as could be expected. Four days after the delivery, the four returned to their homestead, which was beginning to resemble a food emporium, thanks to the parade of generous relatives and friends bearing so many tasty and easy-to-prepare dishes. Baby-sitters were also in abundance.

Just as the twins were not alone in the womb, their parents were not alone in the web of their extended family. Twins have a remarkable way of touching hearts and bringing out the best in people. Abby Johnson points out in her best-selling book, Unplanned, that it is not uncommon for a pregnant woman to cancel her abortion when she discovers that she is carrying twins. Twins are twins for life—twins in the womb and still twins when they are fifty. There is something about twins—their appellation, their relationship with each other—that defies their being reduced to “fetuses.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, affirms this close relationship between twins when he writes, “My sister and I were twins, you will recollect, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied.” 4 Paul and Kiera do not know it yet, but they present an existential argument against abortion. Their twin saints, Raymond and Gerard, will continue to watch over them with love and even greater expectations.

Donald DeMarco, PhD

Dr. Donald DeMarco is a senior fellow HLI America, an educational initiative of Human Life International in Front Royal, Virginia; Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario; and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.

1 John Updike, Couples (New York: Ballantine, 1968), 380.

2 Pia Akerman, “Royal Women’s Hospital Investigates Acci- dental Termination of Wrong Twin in Surgery Error,” The Australian, November 24, 2011, http://www.theaustralian .com.au/news/nation/royal-womens-hospital-investigates -accidental-termination-of-wrong-twin-in-surgery-error/story
-e6frg6nf-1226204303788.

3 William A. Rowane, “The True Evil of Partial Birth Abortion,”
Sapientia 27.6 (January 1997): 1.

4 Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,”
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (London: George Newnes, 1982).