journal/notes

7 Responses to “our strange world”

1. Ofllo Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 7:37 pm

   This is NOT “an argument for better sex education and protecting the reproductive rights of women” This is an argument for parenting since the majority of kids are over 10 yrs old.

2. Stephen Smoogen Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 7:52 pm

   I do not see how the two are related unless you link abortion with euthanasia. And then only if you are arguing that euthanasia should be allowed for children who do not meet a certain quality level.

   Most of the children usually have mental health issues where the parents have little to no support. Most of those problems are not found until the child is 4 years of age. The fact that so few children of the 10 million parents dealing with autism, retardation, childhood schizophrenia, etc is more of a miracle. Most of these parents are not covered by insurance, are going through their life savings, and have to make hard decisions on ‘do I get a second job and spend less time with my child or do I not pay bills.’

   Many if not all the children were wanted when born.. and many of the problems are not ones you can find with a genetics test as they aren’t gene related as much as post-natal brain connections.

3. skvidal Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 8:20 pm

   Smooge,
   I’m not doing anything of the sort. I’m thinking how much worse this problem would be if it were not for legalized abortion. How many more unwanted children would be born.

   And there are some pretty good numbers suggesting that legalized abortion directly relates to their being fewer unwanted children.

   Read Freakonomics.

4. Amanda Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 9:13 pm

   skvidal - I’m with you. I don’t care how bad the mental illness, this is just evidence that for some reason some women don’t use birth control like they should, or they don’t abstain like they should - and I agree with the legalized abortion part too - but some people are just too wrapped up in religion. I mean, there are certain pits of fruits women eat in Africa in order to prevent a pregnancy from coming to term. Is that evil? No. It’s survival, and what’s best for the woman.
   But, I digress. The “parent” in the CNN story really pisses me off. Don’t judge me, she says. Really? How could we not? This woman needs to get a second job, we all know that. Get a life coach, get help from the department of jobs and family services, what’s wrong with these people? Abandoning their own children. Unbelievable.

5. lonetruth Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 9:41 pm

   This is the state of the nation… disposable children. Too bad the “fathers” couldn’t put on condoms and the women couldn’t keep their legs closed.

   Until we learn abstinence… or bomb major cities into rubble… or temporarily sterilize all teenagers… we will continue to have an overpopulation problem, which is what this story points to.

6. Stephen Smoogen Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 10:13 pm

   skvidal, I am more about arguing numbers versus anything else. extrapolating from 30 abandonments is not a strong indication that legalized birth control keeps the numbers down. It can be used to argue multiple ways…

   The fact that the number of drop-offs are so small in a state where access to the pill is harder than say NY.. can be used to argue the opposite side equally well (eg there aren’t that many unwanted kids in Nebraska compared to states where birth control is easier to get.)

   And the fact that the ‘vast’ number of dropoffs were older than an infant would argue that post-natal euthanasia would be helpful.

   In the end, I want men and women to have the right to choose to have children or not to.. I want the children to grow up in a loving and supported environment. I do not see how the statistics or location of that story argue this better than general stories of rates of poverty/neglect in areas where such education and power is not possible.

7. spot Says:
   November 14, 2008 at 11:14 pm

   This explains why my mother was so eager to take me on vacation to Nebraska!

Leave a Reply