Bogosity

The author of this book was on Sunday Night Safran the other night.

DEFIANT BIRTH: Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics

Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics, tells the personal stories of women who have resisted medical eugenics – women who were told they shouldn’t have babies because of perceived disability in themselves or shouldn’t have babies because of some imperfection in the child. They have confronted the stigma of disability and in the face of silent disapproval and even open hostility, had their children anyway, in the belief that all life is valuable and that some are not more worthy of it than others.

Eugenics (wikipedia): is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through social intervention.

In my previous attempts to tackle the abortion debate I hadn’t come across this argument. The author doesn’t advocate any changes to legislation (in the book) but is challenging attitudes towards disability and the way we deal with death in society.

One of her points in the interview was to talk about a couple who had a baby who they knew would die. They said they had the baby so that they could grieve for it in a different way than they would if they had an abortion. The medical experience vs the human experience.

I’m not a woman. So i’m automatically not allowed to talk about any of this but I am a parent and I’ve been present at the birth of my baby. My own experience is that the birth did have elements of a medical procedure to it. The nurses, doctors, machines and trolleys were far from reassuring. However the drugs and care taken to ensure the child was born safely (for mother and child) were important too.

Leading up to the birth, I remember we had misgivings about the tests and scans being done. What if they found something? What would we do. As Steph has a background in Disability Social Work, she knew very well the ramifications of having a severely disabled child in today’s society. She also knew that mild disabilities can sometimes lead to a person of profound innocence and loving devotion as is often experienced by parents of children with Downs Syndrome. Downs Syndrome is detectable in utero and many foetus’ who are found to have the chromosome (can’t remember if it’s an extra one or missing one) are aborted.

The author points out in her book that mothers-to-be feel pressure to abort children who are found to be deficient in some ways. It really does call in to question how we view each other as humans. An example from our own experience: my boy has a slight cosmetic problem with his eyelids. They are slightly droopy. Some people I talk to just assume that we will get corrective surgery. But I’m not so sure that we want that. I’mn afraid about what message he’ll get from that. “Son, you had droopy eyelids but it’s ok because we got surgey on them. But if you couldn’t have gotten corrective surgery…” Where do you draw the line? Strangely shaped ear lobes? Teeth that aren’t straight? What about things that happen after birth: mental illness, sickness, ageing? Is it about being a burden on society? Or would I just be giving my boy the best chance in life by getting his eyelids plasticised? Am I telling him it’s ok to discriminate negatively towards people who are ‘different’?

A friend of mine had a premature baby that died at only a few months of age. She still remember’s his birthday and celebrates his short life. This seemed strange to me at first but should it be so strange? Are we to be judged/valued in life by our material contribution only? How about our contribution of just being?