05 June 2013

The game of global domination

No matter what one is doing in life, there are people who know what one ought to be doing instead. Once people give up on talking you out of having so many kids, they will change tactics and try to talk you out of having kids when you're old (unless, of course, you have no kids and are old; then it is still OK for you to have a kid and actually not really OK for you not to). 

Since we are very knowledgeable nowadays, the reason old people with kids should not have kids is that it's dangerous for old people to have kids. All your kid making components are rotting (and so are his, even), so you're going to have rotten kids, and having a rotten kid would be really bad and actually even selfish and pretty much almost immoral.

This is basic eugenics, and we are all naturally eugenicists in our own ways. It's just one of those things we have to recognize and learn our way out of. Here are the basic lessons for dealing with this particular line of eugenic thought:

--God puts an end date on each woman's fertility. When she's too old to have kids, she can't. If she can still have kids, she's not too old. (I mention this just to help us keep from mixing biology with ethics or morality.)

--Every human life is worth living, no matter how miserable it looks to the strong, the healthy, the gifted, the intelligent, the rich. To consider another life and say that it is not worth its own cost is nothing but prideful condescension. This judgment does not happen in a vacuum. To say, "You shouldn't risk having a Down's baby" is to look at a living person with Down's and say, "There should not be another person like you." There is only one person of whom God ever said, "It had been good for that man if he had not been born," and it wasn't because that man had a genetic defect.

--There is no person so un-rightly made that he does not show forth the image of God. There is no human so poorly endowed that she cannot receive the gift of forgiveness and salvation. There is no one so ugly, so weak, so sick, or so empty that he is beyond our risen Lord's power to make all things new.

--You don't know what baby you're going to have until you have it.



To avoid the increased risk of genetic problems or whatever other harms to which the children of older parents are more subject is to take the wrong gamble. So here is the general answer I have on hand for the caring people who want to make sure I know there's a bigger chance now that a baby I have could have something wrong with it:

"Thank you for telling me about that risk. I read an article about it too. If our Lord sees fit to give old people like us another baby, the greatest likelihood is that that baby will be healthy and well."

Practice it in your head so you can say it instead of what you're really thinking.


7 comments:

Cathy said...

Thank you for saying it.

Katy said...

Having my first "30's" baby early next year. Not sure what to expect when I have my first prenatal visit (what with my age AND number of previous pregnancies).

Also, great fear now about having twins, healthy or not, which is wicked :(

Dawn said...

Excellent point RE: our expiration dates. And an even better point about all men being subject to the loving will of God.

Reb. Mary said...

>>we are all naturally eugenicists in our own ways<< Yes, just as we are all naturally pro-choice, no matter how staunchly we oppose the killing of babies in the womb.

Maybe I'll just print this post to hand out, should the topic arise.

Katy, if it's any consolation, I think most docs hold off on the "advanced maternal age" label til you're 35. :P May God watch over you and your growing little one!

Dawn said...

Katy: It's true; you'll pretty much be left alone until you're 35. And then, you'll want to find yourself a nice woman doctor in her late 40s who had a baby herself over the age of 35 and thus won't haggle you at all when you refuse all genetic testing. It wouldn't hurt if this doctor was also a Papist.

But just in case you do get haggled, my go-to line has been, "I'm not going to abort our baby, so I don't need to bother our insurance with blood tests and the like. If our baby has any medical problems for which we might need to be prepared, those problems will likely be detected via ultrasound. But thanks for your concern!"

Aubri said...

I guess I'm officially "too old" and have "too many kids". Last week a SEVEN year old told me I should have my tubes tied! Glad I didn't say what I was really thinking to this poor little girl whose already being fed the world's views on human life. Yuk.

read it said...


--God puts an end date on each woman's fertility. When she's too old to have kids, she can't. If she can still have kids, she's not too old. (I mention this just to help us keep from mixing biology with ethics or morality.)


It works the other way, too. If a woman is too young, then...

I mention this because of the insane notion that teen pregnancy is evil and bad for women. What is bad for women is sex outside of marriage.

An 18 year old, (or 17) who is married to a good Christian man is just fine having a baby and is not risking her health. Far from it. Having the first baby by age 20 permanently lowers lifetime risk of breast cancer. Oh, I am oh so sure that this little fact is impressed upon the girls in sex ed classes (Not!)