Do you find abortion due to the child´s disability offensive

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Social Darwinism has nothing to do with Darwin. I just thought I'd make that clear. Also also a lot of "Darwinian psychology" is crap. Survival of the fittest is the most misunderstood theory in science. Particularly the meaning of fittest. Also evolutionary biology has moved on since than and our survival is based on complex groups iterations and roles too and there many forms of selection and adaption.

I'm more in favour of self-Euthanasia than abortion. However I'd accept both under the right circumstances.

Almost every situation there is a probably a good counter example, it is a complex moral issue. It is is important to point out that morality is a mechanism for the functioning of society. it is not an absolute.

I find the concept offensive.

In actuality, though, if a condition is invariably fatal quickly (like Tay-Sachs Disease), then I would have less of an objection to aborting a growing person based upon a disorder. In Tay-Sachs Disease, the tragedy is that the quality of life of a person with the disease is decent until about age 6 months or so.

If it's something like autism, it's a no-brainer---abortion for autism would be tantamount to murder.

Same with something like Down's Syndrome.

Who would make this determination, how would they go about doing it, and why? Aren't children who have disabilities 'human', regardless of how disabled they may be? At what point would one draw the line, and say, "This one's in, and that one too, but that baby over there has (fill in the blank), and I deem this disability to be too severe to allow it to live"? What criteria are we to use? What if at some point in time it is decided that since autistics have such a poor track record in remaining employed, making friends, and being 'productive', they therefore are not truly human and, as a tax-saving measure, should all be terminated before they are born?

This is just disgusting. We shouldn't even be seriously considering this.

It's too late, we're already there.

I find it ironic that we are discussing the ethics of aborting the disabled unborn, yet all around us everyday thousands of babies are aborted that are perfectly normal.

But, back to topic...

I find it unethical to abort a child with disabilities. Perhaps it is more "humane" to abort a child that would suffer immensely in life, but I find that it would be too hard to determine what that line is.

I know of someone who had an abortion because the baby had a severe brain defect. I understood why she had the abortion done, but I would not have done it. (Not making a judgment here.) The baby's defect was such that it would have died within days. I would have personally preferred to have the baby and say hello and goodbye, give it a name, and grieve.

I know other people whose unborn children were diagnosed with various problems and were encouraged to abort. At birth, the babies had no signs whatsoever of said problem! Doctors don't always get things right.

Kids with Down Syndrome can vary widely in the severity of the disease. I know three people with DS, and all of them are deeply loved by all who know them despite their wide range of abilities and disabilities.

This also brings up another ethical question...

If it is OK to abort those with severe disabilities that would interfere with one's ability to live a normal life, than why do we not kill those who experience severe disabilities after they are born? What if a problem like severe AS becomes manifest? OK to kill that child?

This is a serious question. Abortion is not very different from infanticide. These days, preterm babies who made it to only 20 weeks gestational age have been delivered and survived with medical intervention.

A seriously disabled child is a lot more than an inconvenience. It's a major life-changer that not many people are equipped to handle. I think it's a very personal decision that only the parents can make (both mother and father).

I feel that abortion is murder, any way you look at it. The aborting of unborn disabled babies doesn't make it any less murder than the abortion of typical babies. I feel that everybody who's conceived should be born into this world and that all human life should be protected from the womb, to the tomb.

I agree with this. I might even throw out the rape reason since the child can be adopted. If I got pregnant at my age, I also wouldn't get the Down's Syndrome test. What's the point except to find a problem that can't be fixed except through abortion.

By all means...
Bring a severely disabled baby into stalag earth...
It is, after all, such a great place...

"What a wonderful world..."
Well, some may think so...


Edit:
Just noticed this is a resurrected post...

then men should be able to opt out too and have no financially requirements to the kid or the woman.
if a couples gets pregnant and the lady can't handle it shes gets an abortion, and this is ok
but if the guy can't handle it, hes told tolf s**t , hes forced to handle it.

this is sexist. what will you likely say the same others do the guy made a mistake and he just has to deal with it. well the woman made the same mistake so why doesn't she just have to deal with it?

i think everyone who gets impregnate should have the baby taken out and put in a test tube to grow. then both sexes will have a right to their offspring. takes two people to make a kid why do only women get rights to the kid but men get the responsibility of providing for the kid.

why do people have the right to question the dad to judge the dad. men might not be able to handle it either you know. do you think the 15 year old guy is able to handle having a kid anymore then the 15 year old girl?

both sexes should have equal reproduction rights. now as i know that can't ever be the guys right to deny abortions because you know he wants to keep his kid and love them and all that. but we can at least remove his financially burden. its simple he files a form saying he can't and doesn't want a kid. she fills the form out saying " i know he can't afford nor wants a kid, but I still do so I take on sole financially and legal responsibility of said kid or kids" otherwise she has to abort. this allows for women's body women's right and for men's rights. both sexes would be protected. anyone for real equality couldn't be against this. if you are for women right to choose to have kids or not you should be for mens rights to do the same.

Not really, because its someone else's decision.

This social dilemma is, of course, made even more complicated as some people are already ludicrously worked up about women having control of their own reproductive organs.

But seriously, it's someone else's reproductive rights. Others are entitled to an opinion, but that's it. Why to people insist on poking into others' private lives?

I don't find it offensive because I'm not in the mother's shoes and don't have to make her decision. I don't know what I would do. I know what I'd like to think I'd do, but she might be in different financial or relationship or other situations than I've ever had to deal with, so I honestly don't know.

I don't want to see abortion happen, but because abortion is the only way to get the baby out of the mother's body when she wants it out of her body, it has to stay legal. The person who is already born counts more than the person who hasn't been born yet. There is no way to know if the baby were carried to term and born if it would live. Sometimes that happens for no reason that anybody knows, or there is birth trauma or crib death etc. The mother is here and her life is proven, although she would die before the baby if both lived out a regular natural life span, but first come first serve. If I had a choice between a child of mine that was here and born and one that wasn't born, I would choose to save my born child. I know them. While I'm sure I'd love the unborn one, I don't know them and their loss wouldn't be as hard for me as the loss of the child already born. While that isn't ever really a reason that women have abortions, I'm using it as an example.

The mother knows what she is willing to do and is not willing to do. While the baby may be sentient, he has no concept of life span or anything like that and she does. He doesn't feel disappointment yet but she does. While both may feel physical pain, emotional pain is the realm of those whose brains are more developed. I'm not saying that I am ok with abortion being done because the mother is simply upset, but I am saying that we have to allow that reason or we start a slippery slope into forced continuation of pregnancy. I do think that there should be a limit on how late it can be done. It shouldn't be done within 2 weeks of viability outside the womb. That is my opinion and it is based on the </> variability from when I worked in NICU almost 30 years ago, so the age of viability is not what it once was, but I think the variability is similar. I think that a woman should have the option to induce premature labor or have a c/s for a later pregnancy if she has a serious reason for needing the baby out of her body. I do think it's ok to require that those procedures have graver reasons than the earlier ones because there is potential life and potential disability associated with premature birth. I think that should be done instead of abortion in the later stages and only electively if the mother or an agency has secured an adoptive parent for the baby no matter how he turns out. For those with a health reason or aborting for severe problems with the baby, then I do think abortion is ok for those cases.

However, none of it's up to me and it's really all academic for me since I'm too old to get pregnant anymore.

I couldn't agree more.

I hate my life, being alive and being human. Every day i look forward to my death even more. I would have killed myself by now but I'm a p**** so I have to settle fo rocketing myself into my grave by doing ulhealthy s**t. I'll never have a full life because i don't have the emotional capacity of normal people, I am incapable of normal social interaction and every conversation is torture for me. Let's be honest, you need social skills and connections in this world. No matter how much skill you have, if you're an anti-social f**k like me you're not going anywhere. Not to mention i have an anxiety disorder so I'm always either apathetic or in constant fear.

Knowing birthing a kid who has a disorder that impedes their life, makes them a social outcast and who will have to work 10 times as hard as everyone else to do things that others do effortlessly is evil.

Everyone who says abortion is always wrong is an idiot.

What is wrong with people here at WP? Wishing for your own death is unbelievably silly, especially if you are one of those people who have convinced yourself there is no afterlife. Instead of wishing for our own deaths, we should wish for the deaths of everyone who deliberately made our life hell to start off with (ex. moronic, bigoted bullies in school). THEY should die!! !!

I don't really know, depends on the severity of the disability. I wouldn't put them through the hell of existence if they won't even survive till adulthood. Not really my choice though in the end. I'd tell my wife that I'd respect whatever choice she made in the end and that if she wanted my opinion I'd give it.

Given the choice I would have said no to being born/conceived...
But I never was given the choice! D'oh!