Archive for June 2007

Designer Disabled Babies

This article is about people using in vitro fertilization to make sure they have children that share their disabilities.

There are several issues here. One, is IVF okay to use at all? Two, is using IVF to not just have a baby, but have a particular kind of baby, okay? Three, is using IVF to purposefully have a baby with a disability okay?

For the first issue, my answer is this: IVF is not okay in any case, if you are against abortion. IVF always results in the destruction of embryos. Eggs are fertilized, becoming unique individuals with their own genetic code, and then destroyed.

I’m actually going to ignore the second issue for now.

The main thing I find fascinating is that people want to purposefully have babies with disabilities so they will be like them.

Of course, the people wanting to do this do not consider themselves disabled. Many deaf people resent being called disabled.

The way I was raised, being disabled is not a bad thing. It’s not a negative word, it’s not an epithet. It just means you can’t do something that the majority can naturally do. If you can’t see, but human beings as a group can see, then you are disabled. If you cannot hear, but humans generally can, then you are disabled.

It doesn’t mean you are any less of a person. It doesn’t mean you even miss the ability, since you never had it. You might be fine to not hear, have friends that are deaf, a whole community.

But you can’t hear, and the rest of us can, and you are disabled. That’s just a fact. If other people have made you think that fact is bad, then they are wrong for doing that.

So a disability is nothing bad. You might be fine to not hear. However, that doesn’t mean that deafness is superior to being able to hear. If your child can hear, they can still learn to sign, they can just also hear. How is that bad?

If deaf people have a child that is deaf, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. But if deaf people purposely try to have a child that is deaf, I think that’s bad. They are depriving their children of a useful ability on purpose.

If people with dwarfism purposely try to have a child with dwarfism, I think that’s bad. Not because it’s bad to be short, but because it’s a fact that there are several medical problems associated with dwarfism, and why have your child have to deal with that?

Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism.

“You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who’s going to look like me,” Reynolds said. “It’s just unbelievably presumptuous and they’re playing God.”

The irony! Embryo screening is playing God. No one is saying you can’t procreate with your husband. But when you screen embryos (and kill the ones you don’t like) then it is you who is playing God.

Karen Krogstad, a 25-year-old partly deaf student in Bozeman, Mont., said she understands why parents “would go to great lengths to make sure their child will be deaf.”

She and her deaf friends “see ourselves as fully functional human beings who can’t hear. People who wear glasses, are they disabled? No, but if you have hearing aids, to assist with hearing, you are labeled as disabled.”

Ah, the irony! For years I have argued the opposite of this. I think people who have to wear glasses are disabled. I wear glasses, and I hate it. I have worn glasses since the 5th grade. I still hate it. All the time. Without them, I can barely see.

How is that different from someone who is missing a leg and has an artificial limb? There are people with artificial legs that can run faster than I can and do flips. I can’t do that. So I can see okay when I have my assistance devices, but not otherwise.

Because a very large percentage of people wear glasses, we act like it isn’t a disability. But it is.

I am having a child. It’s possible she may have bad eyesight. I hope not though. I don’t want her to have to wear glasses so she looks like me. I’m disabled. I’d rather she not be.

I certainly wouldn’t try to have a nearsighted child.

What about a paraplegic having in-utero surgery on her baby so it had no arms? So it would look like her?

Is the “I want the child to look like me” defense really sustainable? It’s really just selfish.

You do not have the right to do whatever you want so that you can have a child that looks like you. That is not your right. Wanting something does not make it okay.

Prejudice against red-haired people

Red-haired family forced to move after ‘ginger’ hate campaign

People are such scum. I always though red hair was real neat. My wife has red hair and people are always complimenting her on it.

The idea of teasing people for having red hair is weird enough, but actually bullying them? What the smeg is wrong with people?!

A family are being forced out of their home by a gang of thugs because of their red hair.

Kevin and Barbara Chapman say they and their four young children have already moved twice to avoid the taunts but at each address have been subjected to attacks.

Their windows have been smashed, the walls daubed with graffiti and their children physically assaulted in the street by other youths.

“There seem to be around ten or 12 families who have relations in the different areas we have been,” said Mr Chapman. “Word seems to get around and it starts again.”

The children have changed schools three times in the last two years. “Every time we make new friends we end up getting bullied whenever we leave the house,” said Ryelle.

Okay, I do tease my wife about her hair in one area. When I see another red-haired person, I ask if she knows him/her. See, cause all red-haired people know each other! It’s actually more an anti-tease.

What’s scary is if you read the comments to that dailymail.co.uk article, some people aren’t even appalled.

Surely, if it’s as bad as the article makes out they could dye their hair?

They shouldn’t have to. People should just not be so worthless.

Unfortunately, most people do not like ginger hair. ‘In the olden days’ folk were too polite to say anything but nowadays children are not so nice, so it turns to bullying. Shame.

Most people don’t like ginger hair. Wow. Glad I don’t live there.

If this family are well behaved then this is disgraceful…

Goes on to express sympathy, but notice the weasel wording. I think it’s bad to paint “gingers are gay” on someone’s house even if they aren’t well behaved.