This is one of several posts originally on a site I can no longer access - here for the record.
Monday, August 30, 2004
I heard Rick Santorum interviewed by Terry Gross today.
He told a sad but inspiring story of the birth and death of a baby son, whose endangered existence he and his wife chose not to terminate during her pregnancy. Despite intrauterine surgery, however, the baby was born prematurely and lived only two hours. Yet, according to the Senator, this life had its purpose, was part of God's plan. While I heard his story with sympathy, I couldn't help wondering - does the Seantor feel the same way about all the other endangered babies and children in the world - the starving, those sick with diseases which could be cured at a fraction the cost of the surgery performed on his son, those driven from homes in Darfur or killed in bombing in Iraq - or are their lives too all part of the plan?
Or is Senator Santorum's son in some way special? Just one example:
Malaria kills over 800 children every minute in sub-Saharan Africa. It is Africa's greatest single cause of child mortality; survivors suffer lifelong anemia, cognitive impairment and fatigue. It costs Africa $12 billion per year. It could be eradicated in 5 years. GlaxoSmithKline has already tested a prototype vaccine - but market forces are insufficient to drive this to market. Meanwhile the profit margins of pharmaceutical companies are 20% (compared to normal corporate profit levels of 3%. (1)
Would Senator Santorum consider supporting some non-market driven response to save the lives of these children? Or is that not in the plan?
Source" Indypendent news (NYC) 11/3/03, from a World Health Organization report, July 2003. See also malariavaccine.org and also emvi.org (European mvi).
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