Pa. parents charged in girl’s starvation death

Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes. My comments in bold.

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This horrifying story illustrates how completely evil people can be. A helpless, innocent child experiences a gruesome, painful death.

Now you will forgive me for noting the unpleasant truth. Three years and one month ago, this child could have been legally killed for the very same reasons or no reason at all. Three years and one month ago this child would yet to have been born, and the parents could have ended her life without repercussions. Three years and one month ago this little girl would could have been deemed to be too much of a burden. Three years and one month ago her life could have been judged to be not worth living.

In fact, had the child been aborted, the parents would have been heroes. They would have prevented needless suffering for this child. They would have reduced the burden on society and helped save the healthcare system. They would have been lionized for making a courageous choice.

Now this unwanted child will become the poster girl of the pro-choice movement. "See?" They will say. "This child should have been aborted, but because she was allowed to live, she endured needless suffering that could have been avoided." They will claim abortion is justified, desirable, and noble, while simultaneously claiming to want abortion to be safe, legal, and RARE. 

But we will never know what kind of life this little girl would have had if she wasn't labeled undesirable. She might have saved someone's life at a crosswalk, or become a wife and mother. She might have talked someone out of suicide or become someone's best friend. We will never know, all because we have decided that certain kinds of life are less valuable and not worth living.

There is absolutely no difference between the actions of these parents and the events at an abortion chop shop. None. In either case, the little girl is deemed to be less than human.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia couple faces murder charges in the starvation death of their disabled 3-year-old girl, a case with harrowing echoes in a city where a series of children have suffered the same slow, agonizing death.

Twin Nathalyz Rivera weighed just 11 pounds when she died Monday. Although she had severe disabilities, she had not seen a doctor in more than a year, and was apparently not on the radar of social services.

Carlos Rivera, 30, and his wife Carmen Ramirez, 27, were charged Tuesday with third-degree murder. They have four other children, who were placed in protective custody. Neither parent immediately had a lawyer listed in court records, and attempts to reach relatives proved unsuccessful.

“The fact you can have a child that literally starved to death in the city of Philadelphia is abysmal,” said Dr. Rachel P. Berger, chief of the division of child advocacy at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, who is not involved in the case.

“The real question is, as a society, how did we fail this child? Who saw this child, outside of the family or even within the family?”

Police did not disclose Nathalyz’s specific health issues, although Ramirez told police that her daughter was born blind and had Down’s Syndrome, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The family last had contact with the Department of Human Services in 2008, before she was born.