Disabilities And Having Children

[theculturewarrior]

Should people with heriditary disabilities be prevented from having children?  A related question, does a Catholic with a heriditary disability have a moral obligation to celibacy?  I know what I think.  What is your opinion?

[Luigi]

People with hereditary disabilities should not be prevented from having children.

 

A Catholic with a hereditary disability does not have a moral obligation to practice celibacy. 

 

1. Most hereditary disabilities are not guaranteed to be passed on to children - there is usually some possibility, but not a definite guarantee that the child will inherit the condition, because children get genes from two parents, not just one; they aren't clones of the disabled parent. The potential parent has no obligation to remain childless because of a possibility. 

 

Woody Guthrie, for only one example, died from Huntington's Chorea. He accomplished a great deal of good before he died. So might any child - even a disabled child - of a person with a hereditary disability. And if the child never becomes as well known as Guthrie, the child could still live a full and productive life. 

 

2. If the child is, in fact, born with the hereditary disability, s/he is still a child of God, a fully human person. S/He will face certain challenges in life (as all non-disabled people do, too) and possibly even certain death (as all non-disabled people do, too) - that's called "the human condition."  

 

3. There have been serious efforts for some 150 years - basically since Darwin published - to manage and improve the human race through unnatural selection. It was called the eugenics movement. The birth control movement was (and remains) one of its allies. The abortion movement is another of its allies. The eugenics movement culminated in Hitler's efforts to create a master race.

 

Since the defeat of Germany in WWII, eugenics subsided for a while but it has taken on subtler forms rather than disappearing. Scientific advancements such as amniocentesis, DNA screening, genetic counseling, and more recently the human genome project have given the eugenics movement more tools for determining who 'should' and 'should not' have children, or which children to abort or bring to term. 

 

 

People with hereditary disabilities should not be prevented from having children. A Catholic with a hereditary disability does not have a moral obligation to practice celibacy. 

[Anastasia13]

This question begs the question of what sort of disability too. Can the person function? Can they provide?

[theculturewarrior]

This question begs the question of what sort of disability too. Can the person function? Can they provide?

 

 

 

Let's say, strictly hypothetically, that the disabled American in question is very handsome, has found a sugar mama, and is limited in ability to function, only able to be a professional trophy husband.

Edited December 6, 2012 by theculturewarrior

[HisChildForever]

Let's say, strictly hypothetically, that the disabled American in question is very handsome, has found a sugar mama, and is limited in ability to function, only able to be a professional trophy husband.

 

....

[theculturewarrior]

....

 

 

I find your argument difficult to respond to.

[theculturewarrior]

I guess the question that I should be asking is this:  Do Catholics with disabilities experience stigma in the Church?  I know what I think, but I want to know more.

Edited December 6, 2012 by theculturewarrior

[Nihil Obstat]

I guess the question that I should be asking is this:  Do Catholics with disabilities experience stigma in the Church?  I know what I think, but I want to know more.

 

In terms of marriage, I think actual impotence is the only relevant disability from a canonical standpoint. I could be wrong about that, but I do not think I am.

[CatherineM]

We had to jump through some extra hoops to marry in the Church. My husband has Schizophrenia and I've had a bad head injury. He had to prove he was competent to marry and so did I. I had to have a letter from my doctor inFlirida stating that I had the mental capacity to consent to the marriage and that I was able to understand all the ramifications. We were prepared to take it to the Archbishop if necessary.

When he became ill in 1992, he had members of his family tell him to be sterilized. His mother and cousin and great-grandmother also had the disease. When I became pregnant, his psychiatric nurse urged us to abort. Austin got a new nurse. The only person ironically who was supportive of us having a child was a gay psychiatrist who ran the study of the med Austin is on back when it was experimental. He and his partner had fought to adopt a child, so I guess he related.

Here in Alberta, the government is still paying claims on people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities who had been forcibly sterilized. Eugenics laws were very popular here. To quote one of my favorite books, “ . . . it’s one short step from ‘Wizards first’ to ‘Purebloods first,’ and then to ‘Death Eaters.’ . . . We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.”

[theculturewarrior]

The last forced sterilization in the States was in 1981 in Oregon.  There was a controversy in North Carolina recently that was featured in BBC News because the sterilizations were often motivated by racism. 

[beatitude]

I guess the question that I should be asking is this:  Do Catholics with disabilities experience stigma in the Church?  I know what I think, but I want to know more.

 

Yes, we do, but we face stigma everywhere else as well. 'Should people with hereditary disabilities be allowed to do X, Y, and Z' is still a topic that pops up in philosophy and ethics papers, as though it's a perfectly natural thing to be sitting around and discussing. How lovely, a bunch of able-bodied people theorising on how best to run my life...

[Spem in alium]

Yes, we do, but we face stigma everywhere else as well. 'Should people with hereditary disabilities be allowed to do X, Y, and Z' is still a topic that pops up in philosophy and ethics papers, as though it's a perfectly natural thing to be sitting around and discussing. How lovely, a bunch of able-bodied people theorising on how best to run my life...

^^ Yes.

Stigma and judgement is everywhere,particularly regarding physical conditions. My condition didn't show up on my mother's ultrasounds, and my parents had no idea about it until I was born. They really fought for answers and support for me. When I was younger, I actually used to worry about passing on my condition to any children I could have, and I think that worry stemmed from how my appearance was perceived by others. Yes, I can't do everything that you can do, but does that automatically mean I'm going to be a bad parent?

[RandomProddy]

A related question, does a Catholic with a heriditary disability have a moral obligation to celibacy?

 

The Catholic Church doesn't stop people with hereditary diseases from getting married. So no, it's perfectly OK to have children.

 

Bsides, disabled children are also made in the image of God as the rest of us. That's why Eugenics is so evil.

[Ed Normile]

I think this was Hitler's question too ...

 

 

ed

[tinytherese]

Also, those with disabilities today have better access to information on their disabilities to counter myths about their conditions as well as how to cope. Those who have children with disabilities can be referred to information for taking care of them.

 

More research is still needed, but it's far more than what used to be available.

[AnneLine]

Really good question, TheCultureWarrior.  And VERY appropriate for Advent... when we await the coming of the ONE AND ONLY perfect Child.  The rest of us... .one way or another, not so much....

 

I have some hereditary disabilities.  Others have a lot more, but I have enough to impact my life every day of the year.  Sometimes it is a pain, usually it's not that big a deal....  In retrospect, the signs were all there from the time I was a baby... we just didn't know enough to put them together. 

 

The extent of my problems became clearer when i was a young adult.  And it was a shock.... and I was angry.   I guess I kind of blamed my mother.... probably said some inappropriate things.  Kids can be thoughtless sometimes.....

 

My mother handled it really well.  She reminded me that she had wanted a bunch of kids, had lost a baby in utero, and that I was the only one who survived.  And she had taken meds to keep me alive, and some of my problems were side effects of those meds.  And some were related to the stuff she ate, drank, smoked, etc. when she was carrying me -- and that NOW we know cause problems for babies.  But they didn't know back then... 

 

And it kicked up a larger discussion.

 

She continued, "  You know, AnneLine, my youngest brother was born right after World War I.  It was a severe economic depression time... Money was.. non-existent.  My parents hadn't had children for a LONG time, and thought they were barren.   And had made peace with that, although they were sad.   Then, suddenly, BAM!  they had four children in less than four years.  Finances were BEYOND tight."

 

My mom paused, and then continued "And then one day I heard two of the ladies in the town pointing to my mother and youngest brother, and they said, 'isn't that the one they wanted Mae to get rid of?'   And," she continued, "I realized they were talking about MY BABY BROTHER, Elmer.   It wasn't some unknown bunch of cells, or even an anonymous baby, it was MY BABY BROTHER.  From that day on, I have NEVER been open to an abortion.  So even if we had known you would have problems, we would NEVER have 'gotten rid' of you."

 

She then went on to look me square in the eye and said, "AnneLine, if we had known before you were born, would you have preferred to not have been born?"

 

I just stared at her.   Hm.   Well, actually that really IS the question, isn't it.  That was ME she was talking about.   ME. 

 

I rather like being alive....

 

And that has colored my thinking in an obvious way.  THAT is the answer in my opinion... if we are a Church that believes in the value of life, any life, and specifically each and every ONE of our own lives, we need to love and cherish each of us, flawed as we might be -- are - in one way or another (because EVERY ONE of us has things that aren't 'normal', i.e., just like everyone else.... standard issue.... prototype produced.  EVERY ONE of us in our uniqueness as strengths and weekenesses.  That is the way it works. 

 

So.. yeah, I think that we absolutely need to honor that if God sends us kids, we love and cherish and are there for each and every one of our brothers and sisters, from conception to natural death.....

 

Now, do we always do that, as individuals and/or as Church?  Sadly, no.   And that is what confessionals are for.....

 

 

Edited December 8, 2012 by AnneLine