Moral questions about aspies/auties having children together

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Is it wrong?
Yes 8%  8%  [ 5 ]
No 75%  75%  [ 49 ]
Unsure/Maybe 6%  6%  [ 4 ]
I'm inbetween/shades of gray 11%  11%  [ 7 ]
Total votes : 65

Deidara
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10 Jul 2010, 1:42 pm

@SoSayWeAll

Immaturity is a good point to bring up. Here in the Netherlands a new program is going to start soon.
Pregnant couples are checked to see if they are fit for parenthood. This has no effect whatsoever on the matter of childbirth, but it's a good way for registering families that might need help later on.

And the whole emotional/rational thing, I tend to take a look at the consequences for the entire species. Some people should just not reproduce.
My view on this is dependancy, although this is quite flawed. High functioning people with downs COULD raise a child with help.
Survival of the fittest includes environment and the environment would make sure the child survives. Society works different nowadays.

I just want mankind to reach it's full potential and I think allowing weak members to survive doesn't help. You could call it eugenics but I'm not that extreme.
The whole selecting hair and eye colour and all that stuff is pretentious.



SoSayWeAll
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10 Jul 2010, 2:00 pm

I tend to worry that if genetics becomes too much of a basis, that we will lose our focus on individual choice. I would not be comfortable if I carried something that was life-threatening, with passing that down. I don't want to make a child suffer like that. But in the case of the ADHD and whatever else goes with it in my case...I believe that if I got married and it was a good relationship, that I could take what I learned growing up and apply it to help my child have a better experience than I did when I was younger. I don't see that as diluting the gene pool...my child would be an individual who makes choices.


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TeaEarlGreyHot
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10 Jul 2010, 2:16 pm

SoSayWeAll wrote:
I tend to worry that if genetics becomes too much of a basis, that we will lose our focus on individual choice.


This is what I'm concerned with. I may not personally like the idea of some people having children, but taking that right away from them opens up the door for too many intrusions and far more loss of freedom.

Above all, I am for small government. They are supposed to be here to govern us, not parent us. There's a huge difference.


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ShadesOfMe
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10 Jul 2010, 10:36 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
I think that it's wrong to stop any couple, who wants children, from having them. That's what I think. It's up to the couple, and not to the world, around them.


I didn't mean that people should stop them. I meant morally should they. of course it is evry unique persons decision. It would be very wrong to limit people like that.



Callista
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10 Jul 2010, 10:50 pm

Life with AS or autism is not necessarily any worse than life as an NT. The big issue we're facing right now has nothing to do with autistic traits; it's got everything to do with prejudice. I see the decision as very much like a family of African Americans before the Civil Rights movement deciding to have children--kids who are going to face a great deal of prejudice, have to fight for every advantage, and be thwarted at every step by people who think they are inferior. Just as I don't see that decision as wrong, I don't see it as wrong for an Aspie/autie couple to decide to have children.

What is wrong, however, would be not planning for the possibility that the child will be autistic. Because of the very real possibility that the couple's genes will combine in such a way as to create an autistic child, it is their responsibility to learn the things they will need to learn to raise that child well, including how to find good therapists, how to navigate the school system, and how to help the child plan for adulthood. For that matter, it's also their responsibility to learn about NT children--because there's also a big possibility that they will have an NT child, and that means they'll have to parent someone who is more different from them than most children tend to be from their parents; like parenting an adopted child from a different culture.


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10 Jul 2010, 11:48 pm

I answered no, it is not wrong. I have three kids, and IMO they are all a positive influence in the world and thus having them is a morally good thing, even if they are not neurologically 100% normal (the older two have ADHD). I have AS, ADHD, and epilepsy, and their father has ADHD.

~Kate


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