“MY HUSBAND IS ON THE BRINK OF BEING BEATIFIED FOR HAVING TAKEN CARE OF PEOPLE WITH DOWN SYNDROME"

By Benedetta Consonni

“Why did they attack my husband? It is God’s will, it is the mystery that exists and that we can not explain,” states Birthe Bringsted Lejeune, widow of the French geneticist who discovered the Down syndrome chromosome. Marginalized by the scientific community because of his defence of life, Jérôme Lejeune could possibly be beatified soon (the cause for beatification was opened on June 28, 2007 by the Archbishop of Paris). According to his colleagues, Jérôme Lejeune was guilty of dedicating himself to the care and custody of children affected by Trisomy 21 in a time when therapeutic abortion was becoming available. “To eliminate sick people from the population is not a medical response,” said Jean-Marie Le Méné, the President of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, yesterday afternoon during the meeting titled, “What is Man, that you are Mindful of him? Genetics and Human Nature in the Gaze of Jérôme Lejeune.” Speaking alongside him was Ms. Lejeune and Carlo Soave, the curator of the exhibition on the geneticist at the Meeting located in Hall A1. “The life of Lejeune witnesses an answer to the provocation: ‘What is man, that You are mindful of him?’ Man is a person,” said Soave, who is also a professor of Plant Physiology at the Università degli Studi in Milan. Due to the increase of abortions of children affected by trisomy 21 (95 percent of women who find out that their expected newborn is affected by Down Syndrome decide to abort), research on this disease has undergone a severe decrease. “A researcher is optimistic because he knows there will be an answer eventually and because it is in line with reality. In fact, man has been created in the image and likeness of God,” continues Soave. “We are not defined by our genes; we are defined by our lives, because we are unique.”

But there is someone who still believes in the research being conducted about Down Syndrome. He is named Pierluigi Strippoli, a 48 year-old researcher at the Università degli Studi in Bologna. There are very few like him that are primarily working with trisomy 21. Not too long ago he was considering to give up due to the lack of funds, but then last year, he met the widow of Jérôme Lejeune and the Foundation. “I believe that everything that happened to me last year is strongly linked to Lejeune’s cause for beatification,” explains Strippoli. “Last year in Paris I visited his tomb, I met his family and found out more about the activity of the Foundation. I came back to Italy highly motivated and all at once a series of positive events occurred to help resume my research that I was previously giving up on.” Strippoli clarifies that, “Down Syndrome is less severe than commonly thought. These children are capable of reaching a good level of autonomy and generate an emotional climate superior to ‘normal’ children. Why this happens is a mystery.” There is very good reason to be encouraged to once again pick up Jérôme’s endeavour who, unfortunately, did not succeed in finding the cure for this disease. “He left three main elements for us. First of all, that a therapy can be found and that we have to begin from this positive hypothesis. The second element is the availability of genetic instruments that can be used to study the mechanisms we are interested in. We now can use bioinformatics that Lejeune did not have at his disposal to study these chromosomes in detail. Last but not least, is to share time with patients and Ms. Lejeune highly encouraged me to do this.” According to Strippoli, “to attempt to continue the work done by Lejeune, where faith and science are so strongly united, is for me, a complete grace.”