The ARC Betrays the Very People It Is Supposed to Help

In High School I was involved in what was then called the Association for Retarded Children (ARC). In college I was a Special Ed Major, Mentally Retarded, K-12. (Note to PC whackos, shut up, this is what it was back then, get over it.) ARC eventually evolved into The ARC. It describes as its mission to advocate: "for the rights and full participation of all children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities." Yet, by not standing up for the unborn, it is failing in its core mission.

Even worse, by its silence on eugenic abortion for children with Down Syndrome, it is betraying the very people it claims it is advocating for. The ARC would do well to remember the dictum "Silence grants concent." On their website they say: "The Arc believes that all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have strengths, abilities and inherent value; are equal before the law; and must be treated with dignity and respect." It also states: " The Arc works toward and believes in the community imperative: that all people have the fundamental moral, civil and constitutional rights to live,". Then there is this line: "The Arc has responsibility to ensure the safety and well being of individuals." It looks like they only mean once you are born, but not 1 second before that. In the ARC's eyes, if you are still in the womb there is no inherent value, there is no fundamental right to live. & clearly, they throw safety & well being out the window.

The following is a letter recently sent out to the KCs about their annual Tootsie Roll drive that states the case against The ARC quite well. It also provides some very viable options to accomplish the goal of helping those with intellectual & developmental disabilities in a ethical & moral way.

I share this letter with you to make people aware of what the truth is. & to enable you to work towards 2 goals, 1 of which is getting The ARC to do the right thing. The other is to make it clear that we will support those organizations that will defend the rights of the unborn. This is 1 of those cases where we have a clearcut opportunity to avoid supporting the "culture of death" directly or indirectly.

While I don't teach or work directly these days with special needs people, they still have a very special place in my heart. Don't ever say that any child, no matter the severity of their disability, doesn't have quality of life. He or she does. He or she has just as much value & worth as any of us so-called normal people do. &, as Corrie ten Boom once said, maybe in God's eyes even more.

It horrifies me to even think that they are being betrayed by the very group I once looked up to as their main advocates. I wholehearted back this plea to stop supporting The ARC & to send those funds to Pro-life alternatives.

From: Randy Engel, Director, U.S. Coalition for Life
To: National Pro-Life Community and Knights of Columbus
Date: May 5,, 2009
Subject: Knights of Columbus Urged to Withdraw Support from the National Association for Retarded Citizens

Dear Friends of Life,

This spring many members of the Knights of Columbus will be collecting donations at their local parishes for The ARC, formerly, the National Association for Retarded Citizens (NARC). Please bring the anti-life record of NARC to the attention of your local Knights of Columbus, to your pastor, and to the bishop of your diocese, urging them to support pro-life alternatives instead, including local pro-life facilities that assist handicapped children and adults and their families.

The Anti-Life Record of The ARC (NARC)

On March 3, 1975, in response to a query concerning the position of the National Association for Retarded Citizens (NARC) on abortion, E. Gene Patterson, Consultant for Program Services for NARC, stated that the organization has taken “no formal position on the subject,” although their “volunteer committees have wrestled with this question for several years, but have never been able to agree on a specific position statement by the organization.” Patterson added:

While our Association has no formal position statement regarding abortion, we maintain that all children, regardless of handicap, will benefit as parents (particularly mothers) become more knowledgeable. As mothers are taught and permitted to make logical decisions about all aspects of their lives, they will also make more appropriate decisions about their children. It is questionable whether or not one needs to have laws which restrict individual freedom and opportunity. …

On December 15-16, 1977, NARC was a sponsor of the “International Summit on Prevention of Mental Retardation From Biomedical Causes” in Wingspread, Wisconsin . The conference was held in cooperation with the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation. In attendance were key members of the Eugenic Establishment, including representatives from NARC, March of Dimes, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Mental Retardation, and federal agencies, including the Center for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. The proceedings of the Summit were published in 1978 by the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation. (HEW Publication No. (HDS) 78-21023).

In the concluding statement of Richard Koch, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles , we find the “significant recommendations” of the Summit , including Recommendation VIII “Potential Danger of the Right to Life Movement” which reads as follows:

The recent coalescence of the Right to Life movement into a national force of significant proportions, I believe, has been a surprise to all of us. To some, this has been an unwelcome development. If we do not meet this force head on, it could become a threat to genetics, to amniocentesis, to sex education in public schools, and to our efforts to help with the problem of teenage pregnancy, and it could seriously diminish our efforts to prevent mental retardation. I am suggesting that we confront this force by linking up with other organizations such as the National Organization for Women, AMA [American Medical Association], Planned Parenthood Community Medicine, and abortion rights organizations and public health officials working for the rights of all women to opt for or against abortion of their own free will. We must emphasize the importance of equal rights – the right of the child to be well born and the right of the mother to have healthy children. At the same time, we must respect the fact that in a country as diverse as ours, there is room for difference of opinion, and for the greatest good, both forces should join hands to spur progress so that abortion will become an unnecessary solution. For that to occur, much tact and effort will be needed. (p. 198)

In 1978, Delaware/ARC passed a resolution urging Congress to pay for eugenic abortion for the poor. The controversial resolution prompted the national office to form a task force to consider the issue of abortion. However, although the majority of its members supported eugenic abortion, a unanimous decision was not forthcoming.

According to Paul Marchand, the lobbyist for The ARC in Washington , D.C. , the organization currently continues to takes no position on the issue of abortion, even though almost 90% of unborn children thought to be affected by Down syndrome are aborted. The number of unborn children who are aborted moves closer to the 100% mark for couples who have undergone prenatal diagnosis to detect Tay Sachs disease in the fetus.

Please note that the position or lack of it on the question of eugenic abortion by The Arc is not “neutral” and it is certainly not life-affirming.

The Knights of Columbus should NOT be supporting or collecting for The ARC, especially when prolife alternative are available, such as, the International Foundation for Genetic Research, popularly known as the Michael Fund (www.michaelfund.org), and the new International Down Syndrome Coalition for Life (http://idscforlife.wordpress.com/about/).