I think if I was in that situation I would have to seriously consider the ladder but I know the maternal pull and want to care for the child is very strong. You have to be a very strong person to make this decision and I wouldn't be able to comment unless I was in this situation.
Well just like her first shag and her first tattoo, every woman remembers her first abortion.
Maternal feelings are certainly very strong and it's hard to resist primal urges. Then again, every time I ride the London Undergrond, my primal urge to shag and kill arises on several occasions, but I surpress them.
If the ultimate goal of being a good mother is to put the wellfare of your children first - then that is what the lady folk must do.
On the other side of the coin, you have chicks with messed up internal plumbing who may only have one shot at carrying a child and they couldn't give a rat's arse if the kid was born a torso and lived in agonising pain for the remainder of it's tragically brief life. As long as they get to have a baby, that's all they care about.
Thankfully, under British law, we deter unnecessary abortions by offering young mothers free flats and a host of glittering prizes.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 3:28 PM GMTIs it every woman's 'right' to have a child in the first place? Just because they can get pregnant, should they get pregnant?
In your mother's case - no!
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 3:42 PM GMTThankfully, under British law, we deter unnecessary abortions by offering young mothers free flats and a host of glittering prizes.
Isn't the latest Labour plan to create "slag gulags"?
http://order-order.com/2009/09/29/exclusive-browns-gulags-for-slags-policy-taken-from-bnp/
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 3:28 PM GMTAs for the original proposal - is it more humane to give birth to a child who will be severely handicapped and in constant pain rather then abort it?
But where is the line drawn? Unfortunately doctors don't know everything about the unborn child and can be wrong. I was told I was carrying an absolutely huge baby and talked into having an early elective c-section. They were expecting a baby around 10lb and I'm quite petite. This was based on a series of scans with a consultant. The baby was just over 8lb at birth. 
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 3:42 PM GMTOn the other side of the coin, you have chicks with messed up internal plumbing who may only have one shot at carrying a child and they couldn't give a rat's arse if the kid was born a torso and lived in agonising pain for the remainder of it's tragically brief life. As long as they get to have a baby, that's all they care about.
I think you have to be careful talking about things you don't know much about, either in fact or experience.
Quote: EllieJP @ November 4 2009, 3:31 PM GMTI think if I was in that situation I would have to seriously consider the ladder but I know the maternal pull and want to care for the child is very strong. You have to be a very strong person to make this decision and I wouldn't be able to comment unless I was in this situation.
Ladder? What, you'd escape out the window...?
But on a serious note from someone who has known what it's like to have something like this in the family (my brother had cystic fibrosis and brain damage). I think a lot of people hide behind the 'I wouldn't want the child to suffer' line, when really they are more concerned about themselves and just don't want to, or can't, deal with it and the stigma that society puts on disabled children.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 3:11 PM GMTUnder my reign of governmental terror, I'd make it compulsory for every girl aged 15 to be injected with a 5 year birth control thingy. That's right girls, you would not be allowed to get pregnant or have babies between the ages of 15-20.
Yeah, how you like them apples?
You are pro-paedophilia. Put the naughty hat on and stand in the corner.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ November 4 2009, 4:18 PM GMTBut where is the line drawn? Unfortunately doctors don't know everything about the unborn child and can be wrong. I was told I was carrying an absolutely huge baby and talked into having an early elective c-section. They were expecting a baby around 10lb and I'm quite petite. This was based on a series of scans with a consultant. The baby was just over 8lb at birth.
I think you have to be careful talking about things you don't know much about, either in fact or experience.
I used to do a lot of hands on carework as a student. Where ever there is a spark of life it's worth preserving. But some from brith conditions lead to the child living for maybe 10-15 years; in constant pain before dying, the parents go through the agony of greif spread over a decade (except they're all too often bullied into not acknowleding this), families fall apart the harm is immense. And that's before you evens tart to think about the absolute crushing cost of care (often met by the state in full).
Parents should be allowed to consider abortion with no pressure under these circumstances.
Anything else is sentimental crulety of the worst order.
That said I wander if they discover the autism gene, how many autistic people there'll be in a generation. Already people with Downs Sydnrome are beginning to disappear.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ November 4 2009, 4:18 PM GMTI think you have to be careful talking about things you don't know much about, either in fact or experience.
Oh sorry, we're talking about women having babies or aborting them - obviously as a man, I can have no objective take on the subject.
What a silly man I am.
Quote: Morrace @ November 4 2009, 4:03 PM GMTIn your mother's case - no!
Only because I'm going to stop your cyborgs from taking over the future.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 6:32 PM GMTOnly because I'm going to stop your cyborgs from taking over the future.
You don't have to worry - you haven't got a future.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ November 4 2009, 3:42 PM GMTThankfully, under British law, we deter unnecessary abortions by offering young mothers free flats and a host of glittering prizes.
No we don't. I wish the Tabloids would stop peddling this nonsense, half these loose knickered morons are stupid enough to believe what they read in the Sun.
The definition of disappointment is a single mum raising 3 kids in one room in a hostel wandering when social services are finally going to have the time and money to pick them up.
Quote: Morrace @ November 4 2009, 6:42 PM GMTYou don't have to worry - you haven't got a future.
Are you still knocking on women's doors asking if they're Sarah Connors.
The police threatened to chemically castrate you if you didn't stop.
I agree with Aaron, generally.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ November 4 2009, 2:51 PM GMTThere'd probably be selfish motives behind it too, truth be told.
And with that if I'm brutally honest.
Quote: sootyj @ November 4 2009, 6:46 PM GMTThe definition of disappointment is a single mum raising 3 kids in one room in a hostel wandering when social services are finally going to have the time and money to pick them up.
Enough about your ex-wife and kids, already!
Quote: Morrace @ November 4 2009, 6:42 PM GMTYou don't have to worry - you haven't got a future.
But I bought the wedding dress and everything. 
Quote: sootyj @ November 4 2009, 6:46 PM GMTNo we don't. I wish the Tabloids would stop peddling this nonsense, half these loose knickered morons are stupid enough to believe what they read in the Sun.
*sings 'Let Me Take You By The Hand And Lead You Through The Streets Of Hackney'*
Believe me sootyj, the current set up actively encourages young girls to get up the duff. Their boyfriends aren't helping either - 'If you get pregnant, the council will have to give you a flat and then we can live together'.
It's also engrained in council estate culture, with second and third generation single parent families encouraging their prodginy to follow likewise. If these were isolated cases, then I wouldn't have brought it up, but the problem is endemic with thousands of cases every single year.
Why bother going to school, being smart or getting a career, when you can just get pregnant and have everything provided for you?
The best thing any parent can ever do for their children is to never have them.
Being a breeder myself, I'd opt for the latter if the disability was severe. Bringing kids up is hard enough as it is. So yeah - largely-selfish reasons. Caring for severely disabled child must be seriously-tough. And I don't want my life, or my child's life, to be tough.