Geneticist nearing sainthood shielded brilliance with faith

Jérôme Lejeune, a French medical doctor and worldclass geneticist, was declared venerable — the first step on the road to canonization — on the eve of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that “discovered” a constitutional right to abortion.

Lejeune is an inspiration to faithful Catholics. He proved and explained the genetic origins of Down syndrome and then spent the rest of his days not only searching for a cure, but also defending the dignity and right to life of human beings from conception. He opposed the “search and destroy” prenatal genetic diagnosis and abortion of preborn children with chromosomal defects.

Professor Lejeune represents a very good example of the Legatus mission of studying, living, and spreading the Catholic faith in our business, professional, and personal lives. The business success of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation came after his death. Today it is a flourishing institution and is the top French funding organization for research to treat genetic disorders that affect human intelligence. The foundation that bears his name has facilities in the U.S. that provide medical treatment and serve as a powerful advocate for bioethics and public policies that respect the dignity of the human person.

In Lejeune, a brilliant scientific mind was combined with a fervent Catholic faith and a stubborn refusal to accept the logic and rewards of the “culture of death.” In the 1950s, when Lejeune published his discovery of Trisomy 21, the triple chromosome that causes Down syndrome, he received an endowed professorship in Paris and international prizes. Abortion was not legal in most countries, but opinion leaders quickly saw the potential for “curing” genetic anomalies by prenatal testing and then killing the children whom Lejeune wanted to treat. There is every reason to believe that he would have received the Nobel Prize and other rewards if he had kept silent about the abortion juggernaut that was launched to take perverse advantage of his scientific findings. Instead, he embarked on a passionate and heavily criticized battle to defend our most vulnerable and innocent brothers and sisters.

He came to the U.S. frequently and spoke internationally everywhere he could. He spread love for and understanding of the miracle of human life that begins at conception. Most famously, his expert testimony convinced a Tennessee judge of the humanity and right to life of tiny human embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization that were the objects of a custody battle. He wrote his insights in The Concentration Can, a book that exposes the horrors of manipulating human embryos.

Clara Lejeune-Gaymard wrote a beautiful and very personal short biography of her father. Life Is a Blessing, translated from the French, was reprinted by The National Catholic Bioethics Center so that this edifying example of Catholic bioethics in action can inspire others. It includes the letter Pope St. John Paul II sent after Lejeune’s death on Easter Sunday 1994. In it, the holy pope of life, his close friend, gave credit to the man whose heroic virtues have been recognized as the main initiator for the creation of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Lejeune served as the academy’s first president for 33 days before his death.

We could all profit by learning more about Lejeune and by pursuing holiness and excellence in our professional lives as he did. Lejeune was a person very much in the Legatus ideal of serving as an ambassador for Christ and the gospel of life. We now must pray and wait confidently for the miracles the Church uses as heaven’s confirmation that Jérôme Lejeune should be proclaimed a saint.

Venerable Jérôme Lejeune, pray for us!

JOSEPH MEANEY, PH.D., president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, earned his doctorate in bioethics from the Catholic University of The Sacred Heart in Rome. Formerly, he was director of international outreach and expansion for Human Life International (HLI). He has travelled to 81 countries on pro-life missions over 25 years. He has been featured internationally via his writings and broadcast appearances.