I am content with my three babies, I have the best of both worlds...two girls and a boy...I love them dearly! I would never care to change them...they are who they are and I love every hair on their heads!!!
I think it would be tempting but I probably wouldn't, or maybe just the gender. Although in my extende family all the children seem to go boy/girl or vice versa.
What genes are we talking about here? Do you mean trying to bred for intellegence, or looks, or height, things like that? I can tell you from a genetics standpoint that that is not only unwise, but probably not possible. Complex traits like looks or intellegence are made up of such a variety of factors and are so subjective anyway that they are almost impossible to "breed" for.
I'd have to let nature take it's course. It would just be too weird to plan out everything... part of the excitement is the surprise!
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People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
-Elizabeth Kler-Ross
anyone here that went with "let nature take it's course" have a special needs child? uh huh, i thought not. try it and then see how you feel. we get to create a special needs trust to take care of every thing our now 8 year old daughter will need for her entire life time. how do you suspose a person financially prepares for that; enough money for round the clock care for say 40 years after we are dead, along with food, housing, etc. also get the experience of having your typically developing children miss out on tons of things because of their sister's impairment, watch disabled child abuse themself bloody-black and blue while you and your spouse try to restrain them, fight with insurance companies, school districts, regionsl center, be abandoned by family members (okay so there is a plus side).
It would be very tempting to choose the sex if it were possible because I would love to have a girl. But I don't know if I could actually do it.
If the science was perfected in a perfect world that would be great if we could genetically control the creation of our children..but it makes me think of Gattica.. will it make anyone who is then born with a genetic "deficientcy" like even a heart murmur a second class citizen and disposable? Would they be denied health care cause they were born imperfect?..will people abort a child if they think it isn't perfect? This is as loaded a question as euthanasia maybe even more so. Do we start limiting who we bring into this world? Or try to develope more natural ways to prevent things, ways to cure or manage conditions, ways to support people who are in need vs. trying to eliminate them or even eliminate the possibility of them.
Ima and Val - you both have excellent points. It seems almost heartless to not use the technology to prevent physical suffering. At the same time, its scary to think how quickly that could turn into picking and choosing superficial traits, etc.
If scientists had more of a moral approach I would feel better about this subject but scientists today never seem to know when to stop. They only ask can I do it?.they never seem to ask should I do it? And the science they create can quickly take on a life of its own and be twisted into something ugly by the government (others as well as our own). When you get into genetics you crank up the scare factor.
To be fair, there is definitely an ethics field. My roomie wrote her thesis on bioethics.
IMO, its the corporations and the financiers who don't know when to stop.
Let me clarify that I have no objection to using genetics to cure diseases and disabilities. I do have a problem with Eugenics or selective breeding.
Val you do have a great point that a lot of people skip over when discussing this.
The articles I've read and the people I've talked to about it typically go the route of physical, superficial traits, ie whether or not your child will be fat, skinny, hair color, etc. As far as superficial traits or gender, no I would never want to choose that for a child and I do believe in letting nature take its course.
i think that it's totally wrong to chose the genetics of your unborn child i mean everything happens for a reason i feel that if you have given birth to a child that has a disability then you have been given that child for a reason and that it wouldn't be put upon you if your were not able to handle it.
why should we choose the colour of our child's' eye if it is only for them to look like ourselves! every child is beautiful in it's own way and we should learn to appreciate that and not worry about why it has blond hair and we have red! it just isn't important
I'm sorry, but I have to differ with you on this, stacia. My significant other works with intellectually challenged adults, and to deny them the opportunity to live a full and independent
life because "they are that way for a reason" is nothing short of cruel. As my spouse likes to say, not everyone with a disability is cute and cuddly and like the character from "I am Sam"-
it is painful to watch people challenged in this way try to do the little everyday things that we take for granted.
I also disagree with your naive idea that people are only given children like this if they can handle them. Life does not work that way, and while there are many examples of people who become
wonderful parents in this situation, the opposite is also true. My boyfriend works with two men who's family's abandoned them because they were not able or willing to care for them.
I certainly would not. Because that would only make the world more obsessed with beauty. It would teach the child that all you should care about is looking good- but like Shiloh said, I would probably choose the gender.
Live Much.Laugh Often.Love Always ♥
am not saying ppl are given children if they can handle them am saying they are given children to fufill thier life and if that child has something 'wrong' with them then that is nature taking it's course people in the world learn valuble lessons from having children and i feel that if you alter the child then you alter the chance of coming to these reliastions
on another level i do see where you come from that ppl shouldnt have to depend on others for simple tasks such as eating
Also, I would probably not have the energy to take care of a disabled child- not to offend anyone or be cruel, because it kills me inside to think about this, but I would want the child to have a happy family, and I know I would do everything wrong- It would be a horrible feeling knowing you gave up on your child, so I might use it to know if the unborn baby was disabled- I hate to ay that though- does this make me a horrible person?
Live Much.Laugh Often.Love Always ♥
And what would you do if you found out the baby did have some problems? What would you do then??
I think that makes you an honest person, actually, eye. Many people don't realize the life time of struggle they'd have with a disabled child.
stacia, I'm trying to respect your point of view, but I've never understood wanting to just let nature take it's course. If nature had taken it's course with me, I would have died of a
ruptured appendix at the age of thirteen. Where do you draw the line- is curing an illness or a disability really interfering with nature, or is it bettering the state of humanity?
I'd like to make a friendly suggestion to you. You might want to give some thought to volunteer work with challenged people. You seem like you have a good heart, and experience like that
could really open your eyes to how lucky the rest of us have it.
I think the whole nature's course deal is a little unrealistic. If we truly believed beyond any doubt that 'nature should take its course', we wouldn't pop pills to take pain away, wouldn't have surgery or other treatments to try and cure illnesses, wouldn't have any form of plastic surgery. If we become ill, if there is a way to combat the illness, surely to God you're going to use it. You're not just going to lay down and wait to die because it's what nature intended, are you? Noooo.
I also don't believe that people are 'given' children with problems because they are 'chosen' by some higher power to care for a child like that. I believe in God but it's not like God hand-picks couples and says, "okay, these two look like scrappers, so I'll give them a Down Syndrome baby, sit back, and enjoy the show." That's a load of crap. Babies are born with problems because of some spontaneous genetic mutation that occurred sometime, somehow during the pregnancy, not because God intended that particular kid to be born to those particular parents.
If there are safe, ethical ways to use genetics to rid a baby of some serious ailment, then by all means do it! Why on earth would anyone in their right mind NOT take that course of action if it was available to them? Because it'd be screwing with 'God's work'? Give me a break. Genetics can be great when used for the right reasons. It's only when people wish to use it for the creation of so-called designer babies that it takes on a bit of an eerie outlook. But if it can save a kid's life/ease their suffering, then yes, do it.
hmmm... good question. i immediately took into consideration a couple's wonderment at what they have created - i would imagine that to be something amazing... then i thought about having the ability to see to it that your most favorite thing in the entire world would be free from anything that could cause them pain and/or embarrassment. THEN i thought of the fact that "genetic mutations" made me as tall as i am, gave me these great thumbs i can do alot of shat with, made me immune to many diseases, & made me so goddamn smart - j/k.
guess it would be great for the people of china who are only allowed to have, what two kids (?), so that they could pick the gender. ack! then again, if given the choice i KNOW most men would demand baby boys and we'd eventually die out due to the lack of ladies in da' house. again.. good question. maybe we're too young of a society to answer that.
I don't want kids but if we were given that option and I changed my mind, I would make sure it would be free from all illnesses and would want it a boy.
I voted no. I think everything happens for a reason. I've lost my firstborn child from something that may or may not be genetic (scientists honestly have no clue about it, only guesses - still a mystery), and it was something I never imagined myself going through. As much as it killed me at the time, it was something I needed to go through to grow and get to where I am today. I wouldn't have my two beautiful little boys (we would have stopped at two children), and I just can't imagine my life without my youngest son in it. Sometimes some of life's best lessons are learned through the most painful of journys, and I found that to be true eventually. I still do not quite understand why it had to happen, but I did learn and grow from it.
No, OMG are u kidding me? SO many little kids out there have all these horrible diseases that they struggle with and yet people are talking about what if they could choose the color of eyes for their baby to have etc. How selfish can you get? I just pray for life and health for myself and my family and that is a blessing on its own. Don't be greedy people it's not a good thing.
Not all disabilities have a genetic component and would not be able to be "weeded out" though a genetic screen process.
i would choose, let nature take its course