March 2, 2009 2:23 PM
Is having children selfish? What about designer kids?
Posted at Crosswalk.com today:
Pelosi and Population Control: Is Having Children Selfish?
Barbara Curtis,Crosswalk.com Contributor
Population control - and our country's continuing war on children - got a big boost early this year when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended "stimulus" funding with this toxic logic:"contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."
Shades of Jonathan Swift! Remember A Modest Proposal - For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public? But while Swift's 1729 proposal was satire, Pelosi's was serious stuff.
Hard to believe that this self-described "ardent Catholic" - mother of 5, grandmother of 6, now third in line to the presidency - could make such short shrift of the citizenry's children, imperiously dismissing them as burdens to the state.
But is it really all that shocking to define this population cohort in such mercenary terms? After all, for 36 years our culture's worldview has been predicated on the idea of children as a burden to individual women and their families.
Read entire article here.
Posted at Drudge today:
Want a daughter with blond hair, green eyes and pale skin?A Baby, Please. Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic
Laboratory Techniques That Screen for Diseases in Embryos Are Now Being Offered to Create Designer Children
A Los Angeles clinic says it will soon help couples select both gender and physical traits in a baby when they undergo a form of fertility treatment. The clinic, Fertility Institutes, says it has received "half a dozen" requests for the service, which is based on a
procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.While PGD has long been used for the medical purpose of averting life-threatening diseases in children, the science behind it has quietly progressed to the point that it could potentially be used to create designer babies. It isn't clear that Fertility Institutes can
yet deliver on its claims of trait selection. But the growth of PGD, unfettered by any state or federal regulations in the U.S., has accelerated genetic knowledge swiftly enough that pre-selecting cosmetic traits in a baby is no longer the stuff of science fiction.Read entire article here.
Posted in Pro-Life Issues | Permalink
Comments
Pelosi is not known for her wisdom even among those who back her. She would do better saying less. The view held by many is that those who cannot care for and afford children should not have them. Therein comes contraception. Not far after it abortion. And sterilization, at one time, even involuntary on the part of the sterilized. Where on this slippery slope, do we put the legal stop?
When you read about these designer babies, and then about prenatal testing, you see where that also goes. Those who realize that they are not going to get what they want can abort. In some countries, they are actively aborting girls. How about abortion when you don't get the blond, blue eyed baby you want?
These doctors and researchers often have no idea about what nastiness they are bringing into this world in the name of science and advancement.
Posted by: Cath Young | March 2, 2009 5:04 PM
Every time I read an article like the one in WaPo, I can't help but think that by screening for certain desirable traits we are screening out so much loveliness. My 4 year old daughter with Down Syndrome is heartbreakingly beautiful, but I know she wouldn't make the cut as she is lacking green eyes and blond hair, as well as having that extra 21st chromosome. At this moment, my big ol' 13 year old son is carrying her around and trying to steal kisses from her. That is loveliness directly related to having a special needs sibling (3, actually).
As a result of adopting special needs children, I have developed a network of friends who have a huge variety of special needs children. Their lives are filled with the type of loveliness that nourishes their very souls. I would hate for that to be screened out of the world.
Posted by: Jill S | March 3, 2009 9:14 AM
This Crosswalk article is fantastic! You did such a good job covering a broad subject clearly and concisely.
Posted by: Becky Miller | March 5, 2009 3:07 PM
