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Godwin's law is not applicable here since the discussion is eugenics which was one of the policies carried out by Nazi Germany to eliminate the undesirables from their population including the mentally ill. I pointed out the hair and eye color as a slippery slope such practices could lead to and used Nazi Germany as an example because the very same thing happened there. Learn the lessons of history cause you're on the path to repeating their mistakes.
It's not as hypothetical as you might think. I am blind and used to be deaf so I have a lot of friends that are blind or deaf or both. A lot of them told me their parents said they would have aborted them if they knew from birth they would be deaf/blind. This thinking really happens today, and now we're developing the technology to make it happen for real.
Yes, though equating sexual orientation with neurodevelopmental disorders is a bit disingenuous.
But a lot of people see those two as being in the same boat. Obviously I disagree, but not everyone does. There are definitely enough homophobic people out there that it's not far out to think people would start aborting babies that were predicted to be gay.
Are you the parent of a child who has a disability so severe that they will never be able to care for themselves? One that will land them in an institution when you are no longer able to care for them, where they can receive all forms of abuse and torture from staff members?
If not, spare us the history lessons, please. Terminating a pregnancy due to a severe disability is the most compassionate act an expectant mother can commit. Allowing the child to be born serves no purpose other than to inflict cruel and inhuman punishment on the baby, and the parents.
That's not to say something like we should "exterminate" the ones already here or anything like that. They need our care and compassion. However, if we can prevent it, then we must do what is right, and not what some warped age old book written by a band of sickos looking to control the population tells us we should do.
This whole post smacks of ablism. How many disabled people do you know? How do you think they feel about their disability? I'm heavily involved in the disabled community and I can tell you that a lot of the people I know would never give up their disability even if they were given a magical pill tomorrow. I know people that could do treatments to be able to walk again or see again but they refuse to because being paraplegic or being blind is a part of who they are. Disability is a source of social identity for many people. Many people accept themselves the way they are, even with a disability. Just because you wouldn't want to be disabled doesn't mean every other disabled person feels the same way.
It's not as hypothetical as you might think. I am blind and used to be deaf so I have a lot of friends that are blind or deaf or both. A lot of them told me their parents said they would have aborted them if they knew from birth they would be deaf/blind. This thinking really happens today, and now we're developing the technology to make it happen for real.
We are developing technology to help parents make decisions. Some day soon all genetic disorders can be attacked inside the womb, with designer babies. Are you against preventing anyone from repairing their child's genetics? This kind of identification is the first step in repairing the defect.
Who is telling other people what to do? Disagreeing with it isn't telling people what to do. If someone is shallow enough to abort a baby just because they might have a disability, then maybe they weren't fit to parent that baby to begin with.
To some extent this reminds me of my college roomate who worked with PROFOUNDLY disabled kids at an institution as part of his pre-med studies.
I went over with him once and quite frankly I was appalled to see these kids that would never live much past maybe age 5. Medicine has progressed far enough to keep them alive despite profound health issues so that they could spend 5-6 years of life with numerous tubes, surgeries and what not with enough mental capacity to breath on their own and if they progressed nicely....hold a spoon.
Parents rarely visited.
I guess that at what point are we actually not doing someone a favor? In some of these cases if it were say....a dog...people would view it as cruel in prolonging their suffering.
There is clearly no single correct answer to this complex topic, I just think that people need to recognize that for every high-functioning person you see out and about with downs syndrome or whatnot....there are many others that you won't ever see unless you go to one of these facilities. It might impact your views to see the full spectrum of "disabled".
This whole post smacks of ablism. How many disabled people do you know? How do you think they feel about their disability? I'm heavily involved in the disabled community and I can tell you that a lot of the people I know would never give up their disability even if they were given a magical pill tomorrow. I know people that could do treatments to be able to walk again or see again but they refuse to because being paraplegic or being blind is a part of who they are. Disability is a source of social identity for many people. Many people accept themselves the way they are, even with a disability. Just because you wouldn't want to be disabled doesn't mean every other disabled person feels the same way.
I find this very hard to believe. A very positive attitude from them if so, but realistically, is what they are saying true, or are they just saying that as a way to accept and cope with their real life situation.
This whole post smacks of ablism. How many disabled people do you know? How do you think they feel about their disability? I'm heavily involved in the disabled community and I can tell you that a lot of the people I know would never give up their disability even if they were given a magical pill tomorrow. I know people that could do treatments to be able to walk again or see again but they refuse to because being paraplegic or being blind is a part of who they are. Disability is a source of social identity for many people. Many people accept themselves the way they are, even with a disability. Just because you wouldn't want to be disabled doesn't mean every other disabled person feels the same way.
I think both of you make reasonable points.
I can only speak for myself that somewhere in a range of disabilities I'd eventually cross a line into rather being dead.
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