ROME (AP) – The French doctor who discovered the genetic basis of Down syndrome but pursued his career for abortion due to a prenatal diagnosis has taken his first important step towards possible holiness.
On Thursday, Pope Francis praised the ‘heroic virtues’ of dr. Jerome Lejeune approved, who lived from 1926-1994 and was especially appreciated by St. John Paul II for his anti-abortion attitude.
The papal recognition of Lejeune’s virtues means that he is regarded by the Catholic Church as ‘venerable’. The Vatican must now confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession to save him, and a second one which he declares to be holy.
According to his official biography, in 1958 Lejeune discovered the existence of an extra chromosome on the 21st pair during a study of a child’s chromosomes. It was the first time that scientists had found a link between an intellectual disability and a chromosomal anomaly; the condition is now known as trisomy 21.
“Although the results of his research have helped medicine to cure it, it is often used to identify children who carry these diseases as early as possible, usually with the aim of terminating the pregnancy,” the Jerome Lejeune Foundation said in its biography written.
“Once the abortion laws were drafted in Western countries, Lejeune began advocating for the protection of unborn children with Down syndrome: he held hundreds of conferences and interviews around the world in defense of life,” the group said.
John Paul made Lejeune a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences think tank in 1974 and later appointed him the first chairman of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Holy See’s most important advisory commission on bioethics.
John Paul visited Lejeune’s grave during World Youth Day in Paris in 1997.
Although John Paul made the firm opposition of the church to abortion a feature of its quarter-century papacy, Francis also strongly condemned what he calls the contemporary ‘throwaway culture’ that the weak, disabled, or sick regard as disposable. He compared abortion to hiring a ‘man’ to solve a problem.