I was blown away by the MSNBC story about the infant from Miami born after just 21 weeks & 6 days of gestation. Amillia Sonja Taylor was just 9½ inches long and weighed less than 10 ounces when she was born.
Sorta makes you rethink that whole question about when a fetus becomes a person, eh?
Ethically though, I am also troubled by the etreme measures people are willing to go through in order to create a new baby when there are so many thousands of babies alive today who have no one to love and care for them. This infant was conceived through invitro fertilization and then required hundreds of thousands of dollars of special care after birth. I'm certainly not suggeting the parents did not have a right to conceive a child of their own if that was their desire. I'm just raising the question about why so many folks are hell bent on perpetuating their own genes and chromosomes instead of lovin' on one of God's kids already here.
5 comments:
I struggle a lot with IVF for many of the same reasons you do. However, it is a fascinating article that she lived after being born so early.
I appreciate your thoughts on IVF but I am one of the folks that believe it is an individual's choice. In fact this past weekend one of my good friends and her hubby gave birth to a healthy baby girl.... they did IVF. Her hubby was adopted and has CF and I think it is an amazing modern miracle that they could have a child of their own... if that would not have worked of course adoption was a thought..... but when someone has been adopted they also must be respected for their choices whether they want to adopt or not too. Perhaps adoption may not have been their first choice but I don't think any less of them for wanting to have a child together that comes from their own chromosomes.
Thanks for showing us this sweet baby girl's feet. What an amazing miracle.... this makes me think about how many folks should be rethinking abortion, not necessarily adoption.
Just a thought........
Dana
Dana;
I did say that I thought it was a matter of individual choice if a couple wants to do IVF and in no way am I implying I think less of people who choose to conceive through extraordinary medical intervention. I am a firm believer that how we partner with the creator in inviting new spirits into our lives - as well as the choice to limit the number of children we have - is an extremely personal matter between each couple and their maker.
I'm just stating that for ME there is a lot of ambivalence about this.
Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean we SHOULD do it. I am not saying this family - who I do not know at all or even know anything about - should or should not have chosen IVF. Not my call.
However, I think it is appropriate to remain concerned about the way we allocate resources - both emotional and practical. Some privileged few have the means to access extreme medical care - while others do not have access to even basic medical attention.
Likewise - some babies are brought into the world with every advantage afforded them while countless others go unfed and unhugged.
I don't pretend to have solutions. I'm just raising some questions.
Clearly, it is unlikely we will ever live in a world with an even playing field. Beyond that, I'm not sure that would be advantageous if we could. I believe part of the challenge of this fallen mortal world is to live in a land of gross inequities. How each of us chooses to respond to those inequities both with our hearts and with our pocket books is a matter between us and our God.
Right now I’m doing a lot of self examination about my motives and intentions. I am scrutinizing my assumptions, biases, opinions and beliefs to see what areas I feel are leading me in a righteous direction and which may be things I need to let go of.
Judging, blaming & shaming of others are DEFINITELY on my “let go of” list. However, that does not mean I stop making distinctions or cease to raise issues of discussion that I find to be socially relevant. Does that make sense?
My husband just got home from meetings so I showed him the photos of baby Amillia. He was flabbergasted and said: "heck, I've caught bigger fish than that! For that matter, I've thrown back fish bigger than that child." Looking at the photo of the baby with the pen next to her (in linked article) really gave perspective. She's still got a long uphill battle to go, but what an amazing miracle that she's alive and well tonight.
Adoption is a difficult and expensive process with no guarantees. Of course so is IVF.
I can understand why a woman would want the experience of carrying and giving birth to a child. It's part of the circle of life.
And with adoption being so hard.
Everyone says there's unloved babies, but where are they? The ones that are healthy are adopted immediately and not many people will purposely choose to adopt a child that has problems. We all pray to have healthy babies.
You could go out of the country but that has its own set of problems.
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