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AMISH TRADITIONS MAY SEEM ARCHAIC TO OUTSIDERS, BUT THEY HAVE MUCH TO TEACH ABOUT CARING |
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Morton may well have performed an even more remarkable service
to modern medicine by establishing a link between metabolic
disorders like glutaric aciduria and cerebral palsy. Most
practitioners have long believed that oxygen deprivation or
trauma at or before birth causes cerebral palsy, a motor
disorder that reflects injury to the cerebral cortex and basal
ganglia. But Dr. Karin Nelson at the National Institutes of
Health, as well as colleagues at other research centers, has
concluded that these causes do not explain most cases of the
disease. "Holmes Morton has given us fresh insight into the
source of cerebral palsy," says Nelson. Adds Dr. Victor
McKusick, professor of medical genetics at Johns Hopkins
University: "The beauty of his research is that we can apply it
to children all over the world."
Morton and his colleagues have tested thousands of Pennsylvania newborns for inherited metabolic disorders during the past five years and in the process discovered that more than half the children with glutaric aciduria are not of Amish descent. In fact, Morton points out, many countries, including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Israel, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the U.S., have clusters of children with glutaric aciduria. When he received the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1993, Morton noted how his practice--and his life--had changed since he arrived in Lancaster County. "At first I shared information with this community that I thought would help them. Now I am indebted to them for what they have shared with me. As outsiders, we tend to view Amish traditions as archaic and feel they don't have much to teach us. But we should look at how the Amish keep families together and serve the needs of the disadvantaged, the ill and the aged. They have a much better way of dealing with these problems than we have." Morton recalls visiting an Amish family just before he established his clinic. "We will be glad if you can learn to help these children," said the father of a boy who had just died. "But such children will always be with us. They teach a family how to love and accept the help of others." Morton has not only helped one small community on the fringes of modern society but also taught the world something new and quite important in the process.
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