Outrageous!
Oct. 8th, 2008 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladydraceI'm not usually the type to get easily wound up about some topic in the news or similar. But I've just had 2 serious cases of outrage in as many days.
First there was the news that the Danish law about abortion may be changed so that pregnancies could be legally terminated all the way to week 18 opposed to the current week 12. Even bigger was my shock when I found out that many other countries already have later limits, so many women from Denmark simply go abroad if they have their application for a late abortion denied. Maybe I'm just being frumpy here, but jeez... an 18 week old baby is just that... a baby! Not some sort of primordial ooze or halfway developed mammal mostly resembling a fish... no. By 18 weeks, it's a baby. On a scan you can see its gender and some women can feel it kicking. See an ultrasound picture here and a full week by week series of scans here.
Now I know there are good reasons why they want to move the limit. Some scans for birth defects and such can only be made later in the pregnancy. But I'm sorry to say on this point I'm rather pig-headed. Yes, I think it's fair enough if you feel you can't handle a disabled baby and decide to terminate. It's every woman's right. But still I think we need to set the limit somewhere for how late you can make your choice. I mean you can never really know until the baby is born how it's gonna turn out. Even with all scans, tests, examinations and so on, you ALWAYS run the risk of having a baby with special needs. It's a risk from the moment you decide to have a baby. If you can't handle that risk at all, don't have kids. Or adopt. Or foster. There are so many children in the world that needs nothing more special than loving parents.
And my second outrage from this morning, very much along the same lines...
Baby Borrowers. Feel free to grind your teeth. I sure as hell did...
First there was the news that the Danish law about abortion may be changed so that pregnancies could be legally terminated all the way to week 18 opposed to the current week 12. Even bigger was my shock when I found out that many other countries already have later limits, so many women from Denmark simply go abroad if they have their application for a late abortion denied. Maybe I'm just being frumpy here, but jeez... an 18 week old baby is just that... a baby! Not some sort of primordial ooze or halfway developed mammal mostly resembling a fish... no. By 18 weeks, it's a baby. On a scan you can see its gender and some women can feel it kicking. See an ultrasound picture here and a full week by week series of scans here.
Now I know there are good reasons why they want to move the limit. Some scans for birth defects and such can only be made later in the pregnancy. But I'm sorry to say on this point I'm rather pig-headed. Yes, I think it's fair enough if you feel you can't handle a disabled baby and decide to terminate. It's every woman's right. But still I think we need to set the limit somewhere for how late you can make your choice. I mean you can never really know until the baby is born how it's gonna turn out. Even with all scans, tests, examinations and so on, you ALWAYS run the risk of having a baby with special needs. It's a risk from the moment you decide to have a baby. If you can't handle that risk at all, don't have kids. Or adopt. Or foster. There are so many children in the world that needs nothing more special than loving parents.
And my second outrage from this morning, very much along the same lines...
Baby Borrowers. Feel free to grind your teeth. I sure as hell did...
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-08 07:16 pm (UTC)- Nearly all abortions are performed at 8-9 weeks.
- Fetus viability, that is, the age at which a fetus could live outside the womb is about 28 weeks. With extreme measures, it might be as early as 24 weeks, but usually not without severe problems.
- Genetic tests such as for Downs and Tay-Sachs are done at 17 weeks.
- In the US, there was a lot of media sensationalization of the so-called "partial-birth abortion," a late-term abortion. In reality, these kinds of abortions happen extremely rarely. The most common situation in which a late-term abortion is sought is when the fetus turns out to be anacelaphatic (sp?). This means there is no brain in the skull, a (fortunately) very rare but hard to detect genetic condition. The law is in place not because these are common, but to allow them in these extreme cases.
- His assumption is that, in Denmark as in the US, the vast majority of abortions would also be done very early on. He assumes that the law has been changed to allow for getting the results of genetic testing back. There are many cases where this testing, done at 17 or 18 weeks, reveals genetic abnormalities. The fetus at this point is still two and a half months away from being viable. Moving the legal limit at which abortions can be performed to allow for responding to genetic tests does *not* result in more or the routine abortions being performed at later times.
I wonder if your local gynocologist would have a similar reaction. It might be interesting to see if your doctor agrees with this reaction.
As far as the TV show, I had read of this. I don't remember if there's a US version that I'd read about. I was wondering who volunteers their baby for something like this. I can't imagine doing so. Then again, one commenter on the site said it was like having a teenager baby-sit, but with cameras and experts watching non-stop. I'm divided about this.
I think it's absolutely exploitative, but then all these shows are. Might it be of some value, a reality check to teens who think being a parent is as easy as it seems on TV? Maybe. I would have to know more. How long do the babies stay with the teen families? Then they get toddlers. One week with an average toddler should be enough to lower the teenage birth-rate by 10 points!
By the time the teens have a ten-year-old, I feel sorrier for the teen parents than the ten-year old. Well... I'm being a little bit sarcastic here. But I don't think a withdrawn, sensitive child would be allowed into a situation like this. Also, ten year olds can speak up for themselves. And most of them have gone through some pretty tough times at school and sleep-away camp.
These teens know they're being watched and are trying to do a good job. I find it scarier to think of all the twisted grownups who have kids, that never should be allowed to. When no one's watching and the grownups set the reality, some really nasty and wicked stuff goes on all too often.
At the same time, all these shows are horrible, as far as I'm concerned. They're exploitative and I don't know why people volunterily put themselves in these situations. (That's another reason why this show is so bad, isn't it -- the babies can't volunteer, and the kids are under their parents' influence. They may agree, but it's a tainted agreement. They don't always agree to go to sleep-away camp, either, or to spend the summer with wierd Aunt Sally. Kids have no power or control over their lives. It sucks to be a kid sometimes.)
Did you read about the show here in the US where they took a bunch of kids from 10 - 16 and had them live all by themselves in a deserted town? They had to fend for themselves for 6 weeks without any grownups or supervision. Talk about exploitative!
So... Yeah. Not BBC's finest hour. or the American version's, either.
Well, just my reaction. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-08 08:17 pm (UTC)What worries me is not as much the possibility of terminating a pregnancy at 18 weeks if there's good reason. What worries me is that they want the law changed so you don't even need special permit. They want it to be available to all, so even if you suddenly decide you don't want it anyway, you can just go and have it removed.
I want a limit there. And I'm not saying the law is perfect as it is now. Not at all. There have been some really screwed up rejections to some applications I've heard of, where I can hardly blame the parents for taking their cause abroad.
No, the thing that gets me really concerned is the 'trend' of sorts going on in this country. Not only are abortions more and more commonplace, they are also excecuted later and later. And for the most screwed up reasons. A survey showed that over 50% of the people applying for a later abortion used reasons such as: Not enough time/money, broken relationship and so on. (I haven't been able to find any english sources for this sadly. I'll keep looking)If the government opens up on this, I'm afraid it's not gonna stop. I have the horror vision in my head where a mom pops out her baby and goes: "Nah, I don't like its eyes. Kill it."
Going to extremes, I know, but that's where my mind takes me on this.
About the TV show:
Reality TV has never been my cup of tea anyway, and this only confirms my general idea that it's a fucked up idea. (Even made me use the F-word) Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol... whatever! It's still entertainment based on real people going through real pain. Yes, pain. So a few people come out as winners, but mostly it's people going through a lot of crazy and painful stuff for a few minutes of fame. To put it bluntly, I call it prostitution of the mind.
Even the Japanese idea of weird challenging game shows makes more sense to me than this. At least they all seem to be grinning like maniacs even as their diving into goo or being nibbled on by rabid rainworms or whatever.
End rant.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 06:31 am (UTC)And why real babies when there are excellent mechanical babies made for this exact purpose? For teaching how to take care of a baby with no donger to real infants. The only reason for bringing the real babies into the equation is the entertainment value. And frankly THAT makes me sick to my stomach. Babies are NOT for entertainment.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-10 06:40 am (UTC)