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A Child of God
By Doug Patton
August 12, 2002

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
-- Matthew 25:45, NIV

No one cared about him while he was alive. In fact, no one knew if he even had a name. But then, he didn't really need one, because having no name was the least of his troubles.

He spent his life trusting others to help him, because he could neither walk nor talk. And when he died, he was buried in a simple coffin donated by the local funeral home.

On his grave marker, he was identified simply as "A child of God." The authorities could only speculate on the exact time of death, or even the date, since his body was discovered sometime later. But most people in the small community were fairly certain that it must have been a terrifying experience to die alone - cold, hungry, without anyone to even comfort him as his body was forced through a shredder at the local recycling plant.

How horrible, you cry. Was he homeless? Oh yes, in a way that none of us can even imagine. The authorities said it was a clear case of murder. His helplessness would have put him at the mercy of his attacker, so it was believed that the killer must have been a person he trusted implicitly. Ordinarily, this would lead police directly to the door of his next of kin. But how does one track down the relatives of a person no one has ever known?

The county attorney asked all local health clinics to assist in gathering evidence for the case. Perhaps this nameless male victim had been in one of those clinics. Medical records could be very helpful in the investigation. In fact, they were about the only hope of getting to the bottom of this terrible crime.

Everyone in the community seemed anxious to help - except the operators of one clinic. They seemed determined to cover it up. They were standing on principle, they said, in "protecting privacy." Really? Whose? The murderer? You can't be serious!

But they were serious, and even a court order could not budge them. They were going to fight in court to "protect the privacy" of the murderer.

The mangled body of the helpless individual known only as "A Child of God" was found on May 30th of this year. Because of the ongoing investigation, he could not be laid to rest until last week. Since that time, the Supreme Court of the state in which this unspeakable crime took place has ruled in favor of "protecting the privacy" of the murderer.

Are you as incensed by this injustice as I am? Is there any circumstance that would temper your outrage? No? You're sure? Good. Hold on to that indignation as you hear the rest of this story.

The man who found the victim's body was running the shredder that night. He says he has not slept well since then. Apparently seeking some closure to the incident that continues to haunt him, he also served as a pallbearer for the burial. In fact, he was the only pallbearer, because the casket was a tiny one, containing the remains of a newborn human baby boy whose life spanned only hours, perhaps minutes.

The community coping with this nightmare is Storm Lake, Iowa. The clinic "protecting the privacy" of the murderer is Planned Parenthood, provider of more abortions in America than any other organization, the same group exposed recently for "protecting the privacy" of statutory rapists all across the country.*

In order to facilitate his investigation, the county attorney wants to know who was pregnant in Buena Vista County at the time of the murder.

"If we don't bring to justice women who do this, then it can happen again," he said. "The only person who knows about this human being is its mother, and if we can't look to find its mother, then we might as well write off dead babies."

I believe we crossed that line on Jan. 22, 1973.

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* "Keeping Secrets," World Magazine cover story, July 27, 2002 (See http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/07-27-02/cover_1.asp).