Saturday, December 23, 2006
Grave New World
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Reproductive technologies have reached new depths. A recent study reported in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility, found that three percent of infertility clinics surveyed would actually create a baby with defects to match their parents at their request.
The study has been reported by Associated Press in and article entitled: ‘Designer’ babies with made-to-order defects? Prenatal testing creates controversial options for parents with disabilities
The article discusses the ethical issues of parents wanting a dwarf or deaf child - like themselves - because they do not see it as a disability. Issued raised are: where are the limits? what is normal? and, who is to judge?
What was not mentioned is playing God and the need of parents to have a child in their likeness. Why not simply clone oneself? I guess they would if it were possible. I may sound cruel, but I think these people need some serious therapy to be able to see their children as separate individuals with the God-given right to a full life, not genetically engineered to "match" their parents. How will their children feel knowing this was done to them INTENTIONALLY? Do any of these parents think that far? Does anyone?
I recently had an email conversation with a woman named Wendy who heads up the email list for sperm donor kids who want to seek their sibs and fathers. She wanted me to take on their cause and write about it, as I do about adoption. She felt victimized. I asked her if she ever thought how her child would feel about all of this when she was planning aritificial insemination? She said that "at the time" she was told it was "best" not to tell her children. They'd never know and no one would be the wiser.
I think the problems of adoption and reproductive technologies go way beyond those two unique niches of becoming a parent. They go to the root of what parenting a child is all about. They go to the root of child rights. And they go the root of a nation in which consumerism is run amok and out of control. A nation that believes that money can buy us anything we want...a house, a car, and child - even one that looks a certain way!
Children in our culture are seen as POSSESSIONS, not human beings with individual rights. No one planning to have a child can conceive of the child of their dreams growing into an independent human being. Children are an abstract until they are actually here. Then, as they grow, we begin to worry...what will they think of me? Will they like me? Am I a good parent?
But if we have used some odd means of obtaining that child in the first place, it's too late to think of those things AFTERWARD!
What is startling is that teens and indigent women who get pregnant are classified as selfish, not able to see the long-term reality of raising a child...just wanting a baby to love THEM. And yet, full grown adults, responsible in other areas of their lives, do just that: create or obtain a baby to love THEM! And, it's socially acceptable! Why? One simple reason: they have the money to pay for it and our culture if you can afford, it's yours! Even if the "it" is a human being!
Reproductive technologies have reached new depths. A recent study reported in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility, found that three percent of infertility clinics surveyed would actually create a baby with defects to match their parents at their request.
The study has been reported by Associated Press in and article entitled: ‘Designer’ babies with made-to-order defects? Prenatal testing creates controversial options for parents with disabilities
The article discusses the ethical issues of parents wanting a dwarf or deaf child - like themselves - because they do not see it as a disability. Issued raised are: where are the limits? what is normal? and, who is to judge?
What was not mentioned is playing God and the need of parents to have a child in their likeness. Why not simply clone oneself? I guess they would if it were possible. I may sound cruel, but I think these people need some serious therapy to be able to see their children as separate individuals with the God-given right to a full life, not genetically engineered to "match" their parents. How will their children feel knowing this was done to them INTENTIONALLY? Do any of these parents think that far? Does anyone?
I recently had an email conversation with a woman named Wendy who heads up the email list for sperm donor kids who want to seek their sibs and fathers. She wanted me to take on their cause and write about it, as I do about adoption. She felt victimized. I asked her if she ever thought how her child would feel about all of this when she was planning aritificial insemination? She said that "at the time" she was told it was "best" not to tell her children. They'd never know and no one would be the wiser.
I think the problems of adoption and reproductive technologies go way beyond those two unique niches of becoming a parent. They go to the root of what parenting a child is all about. They go to the root of child rights. And they go the root of a nation in which consumerism is run amok and out of control. A nation that believes that money can buy us anything we want...a house, a car, and child - even one that looks a certain way!
Children in our culture are seen as POSSESSIONS, not human beings with individual rights. No one planning to have a child can conceive of the child of their dreams growing into an independent human being. Children are an abstract until they are actually here. Then, as they grow, we begin to worry...what will they think of me? Will they like me? Am I a good parent?
But if we have used some odd means of obtaining that child in the first place, it's too late to think of those things AFTERWARD!
What is startling is that teens and indigent women who get pregnant are classified as selfish, not able to see the long-term reality of raising a child...just wanting a baby to love THEM. And yet, full grown adults, responsible in other areas of their lives, do just that: create or obtain a baby to love THEM! And, it's socially acceptable! Why? One simple reason: they have the money to pay for it and our culture if you can afford, it's yours! Even if the "it" is a human being!
# posted by Senior Mom @ 8:56 AM 
