Robert Destro works for the Catholic League for Religious Civil Rights. His job now focuses almost full-time on cases involving treatment given to the disabled.
One in particular jolted his conscience. A young California boy with Down syndrome needed a heart operation. But the boy’s father wanted to withhold treatment. Why fix the heart value? the father asked. The boy was retarded.
Destro was outraged. “Are we going to stand by and watch this child die of medical neglect simply because he’s retarded?” he asked.
Unbelievably, the state of California sided with the boy’s father.