Aspies For Freedom

I'm puzzled by the fierce-sounding opposition here to anti-defect abortion.  It almost sounds as though people are getting mixed up and seeing themselves in every foetus.

People with Down's or neural-tube defects or a number of other conditions have a hard life.  There's no getting around that.  It's just true, and in the case of problems like neural-tube defects or multiple limb agenesis there's nothing that anyone can do to make life not be hard.  Maybe when we learn how to repair such problems things will get better, but they're very definitely not good right now because as a society we don't even do most of the ameliorative things we could do.

Why not spare everyone?

If my mum had aborted the-foetus-that-turned-into-me it wouldn't have bothered me.  I would never have even known about it because there wouldn't be an 'I' to do the knowing.  

It's the same with the foetuses being aborted for Downs or whatever --those are not human beings, they're just complicated groups of cells that would maybe eventually turn into a human being.

So why the opposition?  It isn't as though the world needs more humans.  We've already overloaded the carrying capacity of the earth by a factor of 100 or more and are wiping out more and more other species so that our own mindless increase can continue unchecked.

So what's up?  Are we just as illogical as the NTs?

I agree that it's possible to construe it that way, Stella, but wouldn't it be better to put it down to people's mixed ignorance and fear instead?  They know that it's a hard life for people who are different, and for their parents.  So they want to spare both themselves and their prospective child.  Their motives are good and there's no malice involved, but they're making a mistake because they don't have all the facts.

Edited at a reader's request.

Since you're confusing abortion of an early-term foetus with killing an actual human, I'll refer you to my response to Amy.

(I'm sorry that this is the only part of your post I can respond to, Mish.)  

Can you tell me more about why you believe 'that's a shame honestly'?  If my mum had aborted me, how could I possibly know about it?  And if I couldn't know about it, how could I care?

Oh Amy what a terrible ordeal to have gone through!  It is strange how chat rooms seem to attract these kind of people - I have noticed it before myself elsewhere, and so very rarely chat now.

Stella.

I think that Eugenics here is being defined the wrong way - the root of the word is eu - good genics -genes, and I personally think my AS genes (if such things exist) are as good or better than those of the average NT.  So, from my point of view, it would be in the interest of proper eugenics to have as many ASD kids as possible.  Aspies would be doing the world a favor if we were as profligate as possible!  :lol:

Unfortunately there are (I would suppose) some whose financial positions are so very precarious that carrying to term could imfring so greatly on their time for work that it could place their livelyhoods in serious danger.  That said, I do believe that abortion should be a last resort and certainly that any eugenics program involving the systematic abortion of abnormal fetuses is wrong, and a bad idea from a genetic standpoint besides.

Again I agree with that, but once its too late its too late, after all, no one makes the decision to abort before they get pregnant, do they? (now that i think about it, a blanket statement is a bad idea, there are always a couple odd ppl...)

I believe that Hitler's regime supported the idea of genetic cleansing.

     Well, take a look at the ethnic group that acounts for the founders and most, if not all, of the board members of NAAR and CAN, the leading proponents of research aimed at achieving genetic counseling.

          Pretty damn hypocritcal to see so many people who should know better on the side of genetic cleansing.  

       Thankfully, I think most American Jews would feel as offended by this as I do. But maybe a little peer pressure could be applied? Can't come from a goyim like me.

                               Jerry Newport