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[Kekephee]

Originally Posted by Frieza_Prexus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Parents are authorized to make decisions on behalf of their child to further the best interests of the child. Death is (or should) almost always be not in the interests of the child. The only exception being, as you mentioned, life-support cases where there is no reasonable chance of recovery which then makes the situation one of triage and not termination.

I can think of a few other exceptions. The world is a tremendously shitty place and there's a strong argument to be made against bringing a life into it in general, but if that's not good enough we can talk about poverty or overall quality of life living with diseases such as ectodactyly, down's syndrome, whatever you think the worst disease to live with would be that doesn't directly harm the health of the child but guarantees a terrible life. This is why it's a grey area and simply stating "a parent shouldn't get to make that decision" doesn't work: to someone like me, given that I view the world itself as being more or less a terrible disease that ensures a lifetime of misery, and therefore would have an easier time rationalizing to myself the termination of a healthy fetus, the addition of some horrible disease that wouldn't prove fatal but would just make things exponentially worse really cinches it. For you, obviously, that doesn't hold true; the question then becomes, why do you get to decide and I don't? Why can't I make that decision for my kid? Why do you get to tell me it's not "right"? Isn't that my business?


And since the answer invariably is "absolutely, it is none of your business to make that decision for me," doesn't that mean my employer, my insurance company, and the government also don't get to?