Legal But Not Moral

As a teenager Elaine Riddick lived in North Carolina in a two-bedroom house with her grandmother, who was affectionately called Miss Peaches. One day when the 13-year-old was walking home, a neighbor raped her and threatened to kill her if she refused to keep silent about the rape.

North Carolina state government workers also threatened Miss Peaches and Elaine Riddick. Government workers told Miss Peaches, who couldn't read, that if she wanted to continue to receive welfare benefits including food stamps that she must sign a form that gave the government permission to sterilize Riddick. When Riddick gave birth to her only child, a son named Tony Riddick, by cesarean section, she was also sterilized. Riddick did not find out that she had been sterilized until she was 19 and was told by North Carolina government authorities that her sterilization was done because Riddick was deemed mentally retarded and promiscuous and to stop the reproduction of such people.

What happened to Elaine Riddick, Tony Riddick and Miss Peaches was not moral, but it was legal. A 1933 North Carolina state law authorized the sterilization of people deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' It was not until 2003 that North Carolina made it illegal to forcibly sterilize people (NBC News, "State of Shame," November 2011.) Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs before and/or after World War II that included forced sterilization of those considered mentally and/or physically inferior.

Irregardless of what mental and/or physical abilities or disabilities we have, God loves us and desires wholeness and wellness for us spirit, mind and body. When someone is in a difficult situation desiring help God does not try to "solve" difficulties by killing people; instead He desires to heal people. In Luke 10 Jesus Christ shares the story of a Samaritan who participated in the healing of a man who had been robbed and beaten, and He teaches us to do likewise.

"You can't put a price on someone taking your womb or castrating you, it's humiliating,” Elaine Riddick told NBC News. Money helps to pay for physical and mental healthcare and other needs and wants. "I tip my hat to North Carolina,” she also told NBC News regarding the $10 million to be divided equally among victims of the former North Carolina eugenics program; “Finally they came to their senses and decided to do what's right.”

Un dicho (a proverb) says, "Amor primero, amor postrero" (Love, first and last.") All creyentes (believers) are called to be good Samaritans which is being a good neighbor in the Matthew 22:36-40 way: "Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light—which are heavy?] And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets."

ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith acted as good neighbors to Li Fu, Cao Ruyi and Li Dahai who live in China. When Cao Ruyi was five months pregnant she was forcibly taken to a hospital to have an abortion because she did not have the proper paper to have a child. No hospital bed was available. Her abortion was delayed enough for ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith to intervene. Cao Ruyi gave birth in a secret place to the married couple's only child, a son named Li Dahai, which means "our help came from overseas."

China has an one-child policy that includes forced abortion, forced sterilization, economic terrorism and other terrorism. Cao Ruyi and Li Fu are suffering a $15,000 fine for the unauthorized birth of Li Dahai.

Proverbs 14:28 English Standard Version Bible says, "In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined." Instead of forced sterilization and legal abortion, what are some ways governments can be good neighbors? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.