cavediver writes:
Severely premature babies: More survive being born early
...but is this a good thing?
Heh...
A deeper question with fewer words may not exist
To me, this being a good thing or not is dependent on those who are affected (the babies) and their judgement of whether or not they wanted to live.
The metrics are not appealing to go over.
1. The child lives, has no "bad defect" and loves their life - Good thing (abortion would have been a bad thing) I consider this scenario likely...
2. The child lives, has no "bad defect" yet hates their life and wishes they were never born - Bad thing (abortion would have been a good thing) I consider this scenario unlikely...
3. The child lives, has a "bad defect" and loves their life anyway - Good thing (abortion would have been a bad thing) I consider this scenario unlikely...
4. The child lives, has a "bad defect" and hates their life and wishes they were never born - Bad thing (abortion would have been a good thing) I consider this scenario likely...
Changing what you think is likely/unlikely changes the metric completely.
I don't think my feelings of likely/unlikely are all that informed here, either...
In our world (current laws, current technology)... I would say that creating this dynamic in itself is a bad thing. What a choice to have! I think our skills in medical advancement have increased at a rate which leaves our skills in legal advancement in the dust. Therefore, until laws get a chance to catch up, I think cavediver is kind of right in that we shouldn't be working too hard on trying to "save more premies" for a chance into our world.
Personally, to correct this problem, I would change certain laws.
I would have a system that would allow suicide as a viable, non-judgemental option for those who live in "too much pain." (For adults).
I would add to this system an allowance for murdering your own child after they are born if you can show they are "living in too much pain with no hope of recovery" but not able to communicate/judge such a thing on their own. (You can replace the term "murder" with "assisted suicide" or "mercy killing" if you'd like).
I would hope that our technology could advance so that we could judge the levels of pain/recoverability/self awareness (personal judgement) in babies and children to a much higher degree, as well.
As a side note, I've always thought that eugenics got a bad name from Mr. H. I think eugenics should have a place in humanity's progress through this universe. I do not support the
kind of eugenics as put forth by Mr. H, of course. But I do think that the inherently evil stigma it carries
in any form at all has created a horrible missed opportunity for humanity.
Or perhaps I am simply mad myself...
What is wrong with us? Can we not just accept that gestation and pregnancy are not perfect, and many fetuses will not make it to a successful birth? Are our children not paying too high a price to ensure that we are comfortable with ourselves?
The way we are right now is not right.
Going full-force in the other direction would correct some scenarios, but it would also create another "not right" situation of it's own.
For the record, I write this sat next to my youngest child - who was born with a serious congenital heart defect that required open heart surgery on his 6th day of life.
For my record; I do not have any children, and have never attempted to have one.