By MARY O’NEILL LE RUMEUR
“To kill or not to kill; that is the question.”
It is August 1969, in San Francisco, and Professor Jerome Lejeune is addressing the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.
Ten years before, in 1959, he had discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome, when he saw under his microscope in a Paris laboratory the third little mark on the 21st chromosome. In 1962 he received the Kennedy Award from the hands of President John F. Kennedy for his work with handicapped children.
But the drama of his life was that his discovery of trisomy 21 would lead to a medical holocaust, national health systems giving huge funds to track down and eliminate these children before they could be born.
Invited to America to receive the highest distinction in genetics for his work, the William Allen Memorial Award, Lejeune decided to use this occasion to speak out in defense of “his patients,” the children and their parents who already came from all over the world to seek his advice and help in Paris.
Colleagues tried to persuade him just to address the scientific questions. But Lejeune had given months of reflection to his speech. He had counted the cost.
In his quiet, soft, very precise voice he said: “For thousands of years, medicine has striven to fight for life and health against disease and death. Any reversal of this order would entirely change medicine itself.”
That night, he wrote to his wife: “Today I lost my Nobel Prize.”
As he had foreseen, Lejeune was ostracized by the scientific, medical, and political elite in France. His research funds were withdrawn. In the 1960s doctors had been proud to belong to the “Lejeune team.”
But in the 1970s, it was social suicide. During the campaign to legalize abortion in France in 1975, slogans were painted on the walls of the Sorbonne: “Death to Lejeune.” His own children saw these attacks against their father.
These key moments of his life are explored in a recent film, made by François Lespés, entitled Aux plus Petits d’entre les Miens (a reference to Matt. 25:40 — “whatsoever you do to the smallest of my children”). The English title is: Jerome Lejeune: To the Least of These My Brothers and Sisters.
The film shows how Pope Paul VI created the Pontifical Academy of Science in 1974. This gave Professor Lejeune the chance to work with the elite of the international scientific world on questions of science and ethics.
His meeting with Karol Cardinal Wojtyla in Poland in 1975 was the beginning of a strong friendship, which continued when his friend became Pope John Paul II in 1978. On a visit to France in 1997, the Pope insisted on praying before the tomb of Jerome Lejeune, in the company of his wife and children and grandchildren.
As many countries began to deny the value of life in the womb, Lejeune traveled tirelessly around the world, defending the humanity of the human person from his or her very beginning.
Maryville Court Case
A remarkable trial took place in Maryville, Tenn., in August 1989. A young couple, divorced, were battling for the custody of their seven frozen embryos. The mother wanted to have custody so she could have the embryos implanted in her womb, to try and bring them to birth. Or else she wanted them to be given to other childless women. The father wanted custody so that they would remain frozen and be eventually destroyed.
“The judgment of Solomon all over again!” said Jerome Lejeune when the lawyers for the mother contacted him, asking him to give evidence. The transcript of this trial can be read by an online search for: “What’s in the Fridge? Jerome Lejeune’s Expert Court Testimony.” The simple, seemingly easy, descriptions of the beginnings of life show the amazing pedagogy of a great scientific mind.
The judgment can also be read where the judge awards custody of the embryos to the mother: Davis v. Davis where he ruled that “human life is not property, and human life begins at conception.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Davis have produced human beings, in vitro, to be known as their child or children,” continued the judge. This judgment was later overturned by a higher court.
His Vocation
As a young medical student, Lejeune had intended to become a country doctor, to practice medicine with a close relationship to his patients. In fact, his vocation was to be a great scientist, but also to practice a medicine of deep humanity, treating the most rejected of human babies, and revealing their value to their parents and families, and to a society which was demanding more and more perfection.
His discovery of the genetic cause of Down syndrome immediately removed the shame that had been felt by families, as all sorts of reasons had been given for this condition.
In 1989, the King of Belgium, King Baudouin, requested a visit from Professor Lejeune, as representative of the Pontifical Academy of Science. The Belgian Parliament was debating a law to legalize abortion, a law which the King would refuse to sign. At the end of their meeting, the King asked Professor Lejeune, “Would you mind if we pray together?”
These two men, remarkable for their moral courage, and their humanity, are now both candidates for beatification by the Catholic Church.
The film can be obtained on DVD from the Jerome Lejeune Foundation in Paris which has continued Lejeune’s work since his death on Easter Sunday 1994. His wife, Madame Birthe Lejeune, is still a very active member of the foundation as are their children and their spouses.
A clinic has been created to welcome families whose children suffer from any kind of genetic condition, and research projects are constantly funded to seek to improve the lives of these children.
The trailer of the film is available on YouTube. Many of the speakers talk in English. The French speakers are subtitled in English.
For information on ordering in the United States, contact: Foundation Jerome Lejeune, 6397 Drexel Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19151; or visit the website, lejeuneusa.org/DVD.
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