View Single Post
Old 06-15-2007, 10:15 PM   #11 (permalink)
analog
Banned
 
There will always be three major camps on this:

1. Just have a kid.
2. IVF to get a girl, who at worst will carry the gene
3. Don't reproduce.

I point this out specifically to illustrate that what is considered "ethical" is quite different from one person to the next, even at the doctor level of medicine.

You'll always have those "doing anything other than natural birth is screwing with the order of things" people, those "just IVF it to ensure a girl", and those "spare the child the possibility".

In my opinion, if you must have a child, I would suggest one of the following two options:

1. IVF to ensure a girl, so you can still have a child that is your own.
2. Adopt.

There are tons of kids who need good homes.

Some diseases are degenerative in nature and can be fought against with the right amount of determination- those are mostly muscular/connective tissue/nerve disorders, like Stephen Hawking had.

There is no amount of determination or fortitude that can cause you to reverse a lack of sweat glands, the inability to regulate body temperature, have very dry skin, sparse hair and teeth and a propensity to respiratory infections. It doesn't work that way.

Also take with a grain of salt any time a parent of a child with a disability says the kid is a blessing and calls you bitter for not wanting to pass it on. That is selfish. It's flat-out selfish. Not wanting to pass on a horrible, terrible disease is hardly being bitter, it's being conscious about what pain and discomfort you would bring upon a child simply because you demanded to have a child.

IVF for a girl, or adopt. Don't chance bringing that much pain and suffering onto your child. Demanding a baby, regardless of the risk of terrible quality of life for them, is selfish (I'm not saying that's your stance, i'm commenting on the other parents to which you've referred).
analog is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360