These babies came into the world no different than the ones born in Laurel Heights, yet as I did newborn exams in Bayview, I knew that these human beings’ lives would, according to the statistics, be twelve years shorter than the lives of the children in Laurel Heights. Not because their hearts were made differently or because their kidneys didn’t function the same way, but because somewhere in the future, something in their bodies would change—something that would alter the trajectory of their health for the rest of their lives. At the beginning, they are equal, these beautiful bundles of
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