If this procedure means people . . .
could pick and choose their babies, then I am opposed. Having that power is nothing more than window shopping for a baby -- except you get to kill the ones you don't want.

Sorry -- but after seeing my children's ultrasounds, placing my hand against my wife's abdomen and feeling my children turn, or send an elbow or a knee rippling across my wife's pregnant figure, and seeing an ultrasound of my eldest son sucking his thumb in utero, I cannot in good conscience believe that the living, growing creature within the adult female's womb is anything other than a human, a person, a life worth preserving.

That makes me a flaming radical in some places. So be it. I have been told that my position essentially supports the concept of keeping women economically suppressed, because women need NEED(?) to have the right to choose to keep or terminate fetus, and by forcing them to keep the fetus, I am condemning them to poverty.

My response is very simple: women who don't want to be "trapped" by the miracle of pregnancy need only do one thing -- stop having sexual intercourse. Use some self control, m'kay?

While we're at it -- I have no problems going after the putative father for child support. He can keep his pants zipped as well as the mother can, and should pay a price when he does it. Not because sex is evil or bad, but because refusing to accept consequences is. If that seems too high a price to pay for a little sexual fun, well, there's a sure-fire way to avoid the problem: abstain.

This makes me a Neanderthal in liberal circles -- I realize that.

But at least I don't carry the nagging guilt for tacitly or actively supporting a system designed to kill innocent, helpless children in utero.

I can defend (and have) unfortunate civilian casualties arising from U.S. military action. I cannot, however, defend the deliberate targeting that takes place in abortion clinics around the country.

Okay, off the soapbox. Where the heck did that mind dump come from, anyway? Oh yes -- from a story in the UK papers.

Read this story, and think about whether your parents might have killed you in utero because you had a genetic defect that raised the risk of cancer but did not always trigger it.

My youngest daughter, as regular readers know, has Down's syndrome. We didn't know about it until she was born -- we opted against amniocentesis because we decided to accept whatever child God gave us.

Would we have aborted her had we known? I doubt it -- and I thank God I never had to make that decision.

I held Katie especially close the other night while watching a show on the Discovery Health Network. The show, titled "The Girl Without A Face", tells the story of Juliana Wetmore. Juliana has the most sever case of Treacher-Collins syndrome ever recorded.

Juliana is missing 30-40% of the bones in her face. She has already undergone 14 surgeries, and doctors believe she could need at least 30 more. She lacks a jawbone, eyesocket, cheekbones, etc., etc.

Frankly, she looks pitifully freakish -- until you take the time to watch her play. She runs and plays and has fun like any other two year old child. And, as you watch her, your initial shock and reluctance slowly transform into affection, and awe. Juliana is a magnificent little girl who, much like my Katie, doesn't seem to know or care that she is "different" from everyone else.

Her attitude teaches those around her that "different" does not mean "bad." Knowing and playing with her would be, I suspect, a very rewarding experience.

Years ago, children with defects such as Juliana's were either abandoned, or quietly suffocated. Now, we are enlightened -- we can eradicate children like Juliana or Katie before we ever see them.

It soothes our modern sensibilities, I suppose. Out of sight, out of mind. But I wonder --- in the still of the night, when all is quiet, whether the nagging voice of conscience quietly condemns our acts?

I hope we never get to the point that we routinely try to eradicate new life on the basis of perceived or actual imperfection.
- posted by MrSpkr @ 14:19