disability

[joanna bujes]

At 04:03 PM 07/25/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >I don't think the issue should be whether or not a life lived with a
> >disability is worth living.  Most all lives fit that criterion.  However, if
> >fetuses with severe disabilities are aborted, it allows the parents to have
> >another child whose life is presumably more worth living because it isn't
> >hindered by a disability.  This isn't meant as a condemnation of the
> >disabled.  If my parents had conceived a more intelligent and better-looking
> >child in place of myself, presumably her life would've been more worth
> >living than mine.

If life were some combination of the Nobel prize and the Miss USA pageant, 
sure.

Fortunately, it's not. The only thing that actually matters is love; the 
rest is vanity and a vexation of the spirit.( I have been out of academia 
for far too long to think of more intellectually acceptable terms than these.)

Having children that are attractive and intelligent is a great boon for 
those who believe that their children exist in order to reflect 
their  "virtues." For children who have parents like that, it is not doubt 
a help to be a perfect object. But, for really lucky children, it does not 
matter what they look like or what their IQ is, the only thing that matters 
is having loving parents and friends.

Joanna B.