'Why wouldn't you want a disabled child? It adds to the richness of human diversity'.
It pissed me off a little. I've worked with disabled children and have seen the joy they bring, just as any child does. But the idea being mooted was that people should choose to inflict disability on a child to make an abstract point is horrifyingly selfish. Sure, accept that your child will be disabled - but that's different.
Try this:
'Mummy, why can't I walk, move, feed myself or control my bowels when all the other children can, and why am I in constant pain?'
'Well dear, that's what we wanted. You add to the richness of human diversity'.
I just think it's morally wrong to deliberately inflict disability on a human life. I wouldn't abort a child because he or she was going to be born with a disability, but to impose suffering on an abstract point is plain wrong. Does anyone want their child to have a disability? I know there's a subculture in the deaf community which chooses to have deaf children so that there's a common culture between parents and children, and I'm very uncomfortable with that - removing a faculty for social reasons seems like a deliberate denial of that child's right to a full life. I know that deaf culture is rich and diverse - but it seems perverse to suggest that many deaf people wouldn't like to hear.
