Originally posted by Flipside
I'm glad you put 'lesser' in quotes
LOL
Well, all I can say is this, having a withered arm or leg, or a deformed back, or the inability to speak, once upon a time was a truly fatal disadvantage, but, as Stephen Hawkins (and Joey Deacon before him) proved, the failure is not on the part of the disabled person for being disabled, the failure is on the part of the rest of us for only seeing the disability. It raises the terryfying prospect of 'out of sight, out of mind' I think humanity is better than that.....well....sometimes
Are we suggesting destroying lives because we truly KNOW they will not achieve anything other than pain with their lives, something that Steven Hawkins already disproved, or is it more because having to look at people with disabilities makes us feel awkward and uncomfortable and it is 'we' who don't know how to deal with it?
Flipside
I personally have disabled people within my family (huge family, something like 2nd cousin) and I don't think that a disability is as bad for the sufferer (going from birth this is) because if it's all you know, it is impossible to compare their normality to somebody elses. The real problem with the disabled in my view is in interaction with so called "normal" society, but that's because of intolerance on behalf of "normal" people.
Actually, getting quite personal here but, an aunt of mine was told that her child was to be born with three holes in the heart, cerebal palsy and downs syndrome, it would've required almost permananent attention (they had 6 kids already, rabbits) and it would've been in constant pain for the entire three years of life that it was predicted it would have lived. My Aunt had an abortion and she and my uncle were devestated by it, despite the work and attention that the child would've required they wanted to keep it more than anything, the only factor that pointed them down the road they took was that it wasn't fair for both child and family, there was no (benefits not the word i'm looking for) point, I guess, though I don't think thats the right word either, in subjecting both parties to the pain that wouldv'e been caused.
I'd say that "social engineering" would make people believe it's right to kill their child (no matter how malformed) is completely ignorant of how strong the paternal bond between a parent and (even an unborn) child at best.