Remembering Professor Jerome Lejeune
p.41
Copyright 1994 American Life League

IT WAS AT DAWN ON EASTER morning, April 3, 1994, that Jerome Lejeune 
entered the glory of the Lord. He had suffered for some time with 
cancer, and he will be missed terribly by his friends, his admirers and 
pro-life advocates the world over.

He was best known as the geneticist who discovered the chromosomal 
cause of Down's syndrome. He told me once during a visit with him in 
Paris that he was very close to finding the cure for Down's. He looked 
at me and said: "Maybe then mad scientists will stop targeting these 
special babies for death by abortion. You know, God loves each and 
every one of us, but science no longer loves God!"

Indeed, that best typifies Professor Lejeune. I remember another time 
when I had the good fortune of hearing him give a speech. He was 
expected, I think, to speak about scientific matters, and not so much 
about his faith in God. Yet his eyes twinkled and, with a boyish smile, 
he related the science he knew so well as a gift from God, and 
expressed his deep and abiding faith as the reason he worked so hard in 
genetics; why he travelled the world telling everyone who would listen 
that the life of a human being begins at fertilization; and why we must 
not kill our fellow human beings.

Each time I saw him, whether he was speaking publicly or simply 
discussing something with me or a small group of pro-lifers, that 
twinkle was there. I know he must have been horrified by the ghoulish 
road that geneticists have been taking, and I know that he dedicated 
himself totally to insisting on the truth that every human being is 
precious.

In Professor Lejeune's eyes one could see that his love for God and 
God's love for him made it possible for him to be joyful, even in the 
face of such horrible realities as the latest genetic manipulations 
that are going on in fetal tissue research and experimentation. As 
inhumane as these atrocities are, Professor Lejeune would assure anyone 
who asked him that God, in His wisdom, would never give us a cross to 
bear that was heavier than we were capable of carrying. He would 
encourage us, "Fight on - pray and work with assurance that the Lord 
loves you."

There are so many quotes I could use to recall his greatness, so many 
statements he made that would inspire you, but I would like to remember 
him because of one lesson he always taught, and which, I fear, America 
may never learn.

He used to say, and I am paraphrasing, that it is never right to kill 
the patient in the womb or in the nursing home because we are called to 
love the person who suffers from disease, though we can certainly hate 
the disease.

He would then say that taking counsel with God through the gifts of the 
Holy Spirit would teach us that the heavy price a person paid for 
suffering from a disease, plus the heavy price the family of that 
person paid for caring for that person, plus the price society paid in 
helping that family through the illness suffered by their loved one, 
equals the exact price a society must pay to remain humane.


I thank God for providing our world with such a brilliant, humble, 
gifted, loving man as Professor Jerome Lejeune. I pray for his family - 
that in their reflections on the years they had with him, they will 
know how much we love each and every one of them too. Truly, in his 
work, his writings and his many recorded speeches, Professor Jerome 
Lejeune has left a legacy that I pray our nation and the world will not 
be too dull to accept and emulate in thought, word and deed.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. 
Amen.

 - Judie Brown

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