Quote:
Originally posted by DanaC
Just to reign this away from personal insults and back to the issue at hand. What about people who are not mentally disabled/retarded whose future progeny are substantially at risk from certain serious hereditary disorders ? Would you advocate enfored sterilsation so as to prevent that furture child having to suffer ?
What if tests have shown that a feotus is likely to be born with downsyndrome? What if the child is likely to be profoundly disabled? Would you advocate enforced termination? ( assuming this is discovered early enough )
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I know plenty about hereditary "disorders" (kidney failure, diabetes). Maybe not considered to some as "serious" but they are not living with it as I am and it *is* serious enough to consider getting a whole new organ in order for me to live.
At any rate, I say if it was discovered early enough, I don't think I'd "enforce" anything, but point out to the potential parents the tough situation they would be entering into by taking on a child with health difficulties: possible out-of-pocket expenses if their insurance doesn't cover certain procedures, medications, etc., possible special schooling, alterations to the home if the child is not able to be mobile, multiple hospital stays...it can get quite stressful. And will they be able to be emotionally strong enough in order to face these challenges and a possible premature death of that child. Granted, science is working on a lot of things everyday, but trust me when I say I've been doing enough research about my own situation to know that advances in medicine takes time and a
LOT of money, so the breakthrough may not come in time to prolong the child's life.
So I'm thinking if the parents decided to take the chance in dealing with these issues regarding their child's health, then they should perhaps forfeit getting any special treatment and/or help (in the way of funding) in order to assist the child. This way, the ball is in their court and no one can cry that the government made them do anything against their will and so forth.