Potentially offensive.
May. 6th, 2005 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lamia_primeDon't say I didn't warn you *shrug*
I'm on lists. Lots of lists. And I'm not on as many as some others I could name, but so what. And among other things, that means that there are a lot of people interacting vaguely within my periphery whom I never meet, never talk to, never interact with, and generally skim only briefly before hitting "Delete".
One of the so-called local "leather" lists I'm on has a couple (whom I've never met) who have recently had a baby. I say recently, but I actually mean months ago. The child has lived his entire post-womb existence in the hospital, being operated on repeatedly for various issues.
Now I realize that I don't have children, and that is by choice, and if I did, I would possibly feel differently, being a MOTHER and all, and would do anything to save my precious angel. But since I don't have kids, and I'm clearly an insensitive heartless cunt, and this is MY livejournal, here goes.
If your baby is that ill, that defective, that at the age of 3 months and less, it is having these operations (all of which are happening or have happened to this particular child in question) to fix a hernia, to fix breathing issues, to fix something in the blood vessels of it's eyes, to fix a myriad of other problems that prevent it from ever leaving the hosiptal until over 90 days of alternating surgery and recovery have elapsed, maybe, just maybe, this child should not be permitted to live and contribute such defective genetic material into the human race.
Yes, medical miracles permit the blind to see, the lame to walk, the crippled to stand, to inject ass-fat into our lips, to remove hair, change noses, exchange livers and hearts and sexes and remove our intestines and still permit the subjects to live, and to live better, healthier, happier lives. And that's all for the good.
But when a baby is born that defective. When there are countless healthy children dying of malnutrition and easily preventable diseases not only worldwide, but in our own country, which is supposedly so wealthy and so wonderful, and when some of those babies and children live in your own state, and are even of your own race (as that IS an issue for some people), why would you chose to punish yourself and your spouse with the emotional torment of a child who is that incapable of living without such modern medical miracles, of the expense entailed (and if you don't pay anything because your insurance is that good, believe me when I say that everyone ELSE is paying for it, ultimately). And why would you choose to dilute the species with defective genetics?
The strong survive and it's for the best of the species. The weak are left to die, eaten by lions or bears or wombats or crows, and it's what nature is about.
Yes, of course, a full adult who has a medical issue, that's not what we're discussing here. We're discussing babies who, even 50 years ago, would have died.
I just don't know how much I can seriously support this weakening of our race, more than it's already been. We raise our children to be utterly self-involved, with expectations of entitlement and self-righteousness, in a litiginous society that is the laughing-stock of the planet. We praise ignorance, despise age and wisdom, worship youth, and ignore the needs of our environment for the desires of "now".
Like rabbits in an overcrowded warren, whose bodies reabsorb kits before they are born, we as humans are having greater and greater difficulties with breeding, and with artifical insemination, test tubes, and diety-of-choice knows what else, we are forced to resort to medical manipulation to propigate, while leaving perfectly "good" children to die slowly in misery and want.
How can this be right?
If you have been trying to breed, unsuccessfully, and you finally manage it, and that sprog is defective, maybe you should take that as a sign from somewhere or someone that you should not breed. And yes, I know, you are a thwarted mommy whose sorry life would be complete with a babbling podling to make your existence complete and fulfill your life's meaning. But look at the court system and the welfare system, where others are spawning like hamsters, and cannot support the children they already have, yet create more. Or are abandoned by their parents because their parents are unable or unwilling to cope with the responsibility. Or are in jail. Or are dead.
There are children, babies, youths, who need the money you spend on that infant's eyeball vein operation, to eat, to put a roof over their head, to make them turn out differently. To keep them from drugs, rape, prison, death, disease, and maybe help them go to school and reach their full potential. Maybe. Just maybe.
Well, didn't this rant spiral out of control
Don't say I didn't warn you.
I'm on lists. Lots of lists. And I'm not on as many as some others I could name, but so what. And among other things, that means that there are a lot of people interacting vaguely within my periphery whom I never meet, never talk to, never interact with, and generally skim only briefly before hitting "Delete".
One of the so-called local "leather" lists I'm on has a couple (whom I've never met) who have recently had a baby. I say recently, but I actually mean months ago. The child has lived his entire post-womb existence in the hospital, being operated on repeatedly for various issues.
Now I realize that I don't have children, and that is by choice, and if I did, I would possibly feel differently, being a MOTHER and all, and would do anything to save my precious angel. But since I don't have kids, and I'm clearly an insensitive heartless cunt, and this is MY livejournal, here goes.
If your baby is that ill, that defective, that at the age of 3 months and less, it is having these operations (all of which are happening or have happened to this particular child in question) to fix a hernia, to fix breathing issues, to fix something in the blood vessels of it's eyes, to fix a myriad of other problems that prevent it from ever leaving the hosiptal until over 90 days of alternating surgery and recovery have elapsed, maybe, just maybe, this child should not be permitted to live and contribute such defective genetic material into the human race.
Yes, medical miracles permit the blind to see, the lame to walk, the crippled to stand, to inject ass-fat into our lips, to remove hair, change noses, exchange livers and hearts and sexes and remove our intestines and still permit the subjects to live, and to live better, healthier, happier lives. And that's all for the good.
But when a baby is born that defective. When there are countless healthy children dying of malnutrition and easily preventable diseases not only worldwide, but in our own country, which is supposedly so wealthy and so wonderful, and when some of those babies and children live in your own state, and are even of your own race (as that IS an issue for some people), why would you chose to punish yourself and your spouse with the emotional torment of a child who is that incapable of living without such modern medical miracles, of the expense entailed (and if you don't pay anything because your insurance is that good, believe me when I say that everyone ELSE is paying for it, ultimately). And why would you choose to dilute the species with defective genetics?
The strong survive and it's for the best of the species. The weak are left to die, eaten by lions or bears or wombats or crows, and it's what nature is about.
Yes, of course, a full adult who has a medical issue, that's not what we're discussing here. We're discussing babies who, even 50 years ago, would have died.
I just don't know how much I can seriously support this weakening of our race, more than it's already been. We raise our children to be utterly self-involved, with expectations of entitlement and self-righteousness, in a litiginous society that is the laughing-stock of the planet. We praise ignorance, despise age and wisdom, worship youth, and ignore the needs of our environment for the desires of "now".
Like rabbits in an overcrowded warren, whose bodies reabsorb kits before they are born, we as humans are having greater and greater difficulties with breeding, and with artifical insemination, test tubes, and diety-of-choice knows what else, we are forced to resort to medical manipulation to propigate, while leaving perfectly "good" children to die slowly in misery and want.
How can this be right?
If you have been trying to breed, unsuccessfully, and you finally manage it, and that sprog is defective, maybe you should take that as a sign from somewhere or someone that you should not breed. And yes, I know, you are a thwarted mommy whose sorry life would be complete with a babbling podling to make your existence complete and fulfill your life's meaning. But look at the court system and the welfare system, where others are spawning like hamsters, and cannot support the children they already have, yet create more. Or are abandoned by their parents because their parents are unable or unwilling to cope with the responsibility. Or are in jail. Or are dead.
There are children, babies, youths, who need the money you spend on that infant's eyeball vein operation, to eat, to put a roof over their head, to make them turn out differently. To keep them from drugs, rape, prison, death, disease, and maybe help them go to school and reach their full potential. Maybe. Just maybe.
Well, didn't this rant spiral out of control
Don't say I didn't warn you.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Uh-huh
Date: 2005-05-06 03:51 pm (UTC)However there are exceptions to this. I believe you are clear in your example here that these are a series of repair and corrective surgeries. And in that case, I agree, something was not correct in the genetics here. This is different from the situation of Eilis'a nd my protege who's daughter was born prematurely due to an infection in mom that forced early labor. Their youngling spent several months in ICUs and such due to the premature birth. In that case it was more maintainence work - not repair work.
I agree that to the conservative religious right, we are talking evil and despicable treason here. Unfortunately there is no arguing with their foolishness as they frankly do not care what anyone thinks but themselves - you hit it in one - they are self absorbed and mindless. They could not have a lucid original thought if they tried.
It is frustrating to have even our limited degree of perspective and intelligence and to be able to see the obvious and yet be decried as heretics.
[sigh]
Re: Uh-huh
Date: 2005-05-06 03:59 pm (UTC)another breeder
Date: 2005-05-06 04:03 pm (UTC)If it were my child, if it were Tanya, I would not allow these kind of measures. Its not right.
Not to be a total bastard, but put it down and make another.
Sperm are not sacred and if it is trying its best to die, was made wrong, etc, I cannot justify the tons of money and time of skilled people in order to inflict pain and risk on something that wasn't done in the first place.
Sorry, but my school of thought is that babies are not complete, ensouled human beings until they have breathed on thier own for seven days.
clearly
Date: 2005-05-06 05:05 pm (UTC)When Erin was born she was perfect except for an unstable airway and a hole in her heart. That said, she did not require 10s of thousands of dollars in surgeries. I know that I have met people who have almost no interaction with the outside world (I mean outside of their heads- not their houses) and I woudl not want to live like that or let my child either. Let the soul go and come around again.
Blessed be.
Re: clearly
Date: 2005-05-06 07:19 pm (UTC)If you need some rest & support so you can heal yourself, thats what medicice is for.
One simple surgery to allow a healthy child to thrive? Great! say I.
I do not consider babies disposable nor suggest that deciding not to provide extreme measures would be a causal or simple thing.
But we must weigh the damage of immersing a baby into cold grip of pain and trama and the controlled violence of surgeries for all the first months of thier lives.
And there is no way to explain, they cannot make choices or try to comprehend why they are being tormented. Nothing could possibly comfort a newborn when each awakening is pain and thier entire world is just suffering and confusion.
It seems like a selfish and cruel choice to put them through horrible experiances for a chance at a life because we as parents can't live with the guilt of not trying even the most extreme meaasures.
Better to have an unthinkably short life of warm arms, gentle care and love than a longer one of suffering and fear.
If multiple surgeries are required to have to even have a chance at a life of pain and disability, thats not right.
And, like it or not, we as a society must balance the burden of care. There are thousands of children who never see a dentist, who die for lack of a simple vaccince. We could cure, protect and help thousands for the cost of these surgeries and NICU time for a child who is unlikey to ever thrive. Thats just not the best way to use our resources and so terribly unfair.
Wow.
Date: 2005-05-06 05:24 pm (UTC)It's an interesting point that we thwart Darwinism by manipulating our procreation once we've determined that we can't procreate on our own. One might seriously consider the genetic reasons the couple are infertile together (even if it seems to be only one parents, the couple as a whole are infertile, yes?). However, things take a turn in the mental department when you add in the religious factor: I might think that a baby's life isn't set in stone until day 8 (post-birth), whereas another might vehemently argue that Life starts with conception and the mother should be kept in jail rather than abort the fetus. There's no rational-evolutionary bias in strong religious views (I think, maybe).
*sigh* I'll leave it at that.