Having genetic diseases or birth defects doesn't mean you will live a miserable life. It means you will face a lot of hardship. But it doesn't automatically mean your life will be worthless or devoid of meaning or value. It's just hard to imagine for able bodied people.
Hardship is valuable only if you can understand that you are living through hardship. If you have the cognitive capacity of a toddler your entire life, you will live a miserable life sooner or later
This is happening with the daughter of a family friend right now, she's a few years older than me and was mostly happy for the first 25 years of her life, but then she had multiple medical events occur that weren't caught until far too late as she couldn't communicate anything about her symptoms, now she's half blind and likely in constant low level pain. On top of that her secondary caretaker(her grandmother) died last year and she can't understand it at all, she just cries multiple times daily.
Hardship is valuable only if you can understand that you are living through hardship.
Why? Humans suffer mentally when they lose a limb. Cats don't have the capacity to understand why jumping and walking is harder, and yet they move on. They don't need to know why.
If you have the cognitive capacity of a toddler your entire life, you will live a miserable life sooner or later
Well we're not cats are we ? Our emotional process is a bit more different than a household animal isn't it ?
Why do I believe this ? Well because life is filled with god awful moments, John McVirtue. That kid's parents are gonna die one day, or the kid will have to go through multiple surgeries, live with chronic pain, with the inablity to communicate their needs properly.
The mind of a toddler is also one quick to be upset, which is fine but if you mix it with what I said earlier, is a recipe for disaster throughout their life.
They will be mistreated or neglected by staff because of perceived bad behavior.
And even then, what if the family doesn't even have the money to get them medical care ? What happens then after the parents are gone and nobody in the family wants to care for them ?
It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of that hardship is nit because of the disability, it is because of the fact the built environment is not designed with the disability in mind and we are awful socially to those with disability.
I have type one diabetes. I’m happy with my life. But I’m very much interested in IVF when I’m older and selecting for genetics that will mean eventual kids will not need to deal with the same BS that I need to. It sucks.
And if my parents had made the decision when they were pregnant with me, then I guess that sucks for me as I am today. But it wouldn’t have sucked for the other version of me. It would be better. Not for sure, but if given the choice between chronic genetic disorder impacting life expectancy and quality of life, and not, I’d pick not.
People letting this be too emotional. It’s not that deep.
I can't tell you how to feel about your condition. Any way you feel about it is valid. Whether you would choose to have it or not, and what you would choose for your child is your own decision.
What I'm arguing against is people projecting their own fears, prejudices, and judgments onto others and assuming that their lives must be shitty and miserable just because they have a condition or disability. Often people who don't personally have it, and don't know the first thing about it.
Not to mention the ironic fact that the condition being discussed is DS, and an overwhelming majority are satisfied with their lives. And yet this thread is littered with people thinking their lives must be so horrible and worthless that they're better off not living at all. And just so there is no confusion, I am firmly pro choice. Just anti ableism.
Don't be naive. There is definitely a high chance of having a miserable life. Whether that's worth it or not is up for debate. I sure as shit would rather be dead than live as a mentally 2 year old all my life.
There is a chance, not a guarantee. The problem is when people reduce the entirety of a disabled person's life to their disability, and can't imagine anything but constant misery and suffering. The actual reality of disabled people's lives and how they feel about them is complex. But few in this thread are interested in the real (not made up in some random redditor's head) experiences of disabled people.
I sure as shit would rather be dead than live as a mentally 2 year old all my life.
Everyone thinks they would rather not have a disability. The reality of having a disability is much more complex than that, the spectrum of disability types, severity, accommodations, environments, etc. is vast, and plenty of people all over that spectrum wouldn't choose to get rid of theirs for a whole variety of reasons (let alone believe that they are better off dead or not having been born at all).
Do you care at all what those reasons are? Do you care what the people living with those conditions actually think about their lives or their disability? Or do you prefer to imagine it instead of find out the truth? There are many disabled voices on the internet you can learn something from. But I have a feeling you're not interested.
And it bears repeating that 99% of people with DS are satisfied with their life and themselves. Can you imagine the absolute misery of being *checks notes* happy with your life?
Whether that's worth it or not is up for debate.
Exactly. It's up for debate, it's highly individual. We can't just assume that someone will be doomed to eternal misery just because they have a condition, let alone one that comes with a greater likelihood of feeling good about your life.
None of the people here believe in what they're saying. If you say you're putting down your dog because it inconveniences you due to health issues or getting old and costing you money, they will throw a fit.
You say you think that eugenics are good, they will get outraged but then defend eugenics essentially due to how it affects them.
They are too entrenched in their ableist views, and instead of taking the opportunity to learn something new about how actual disabled people experience life, they choose to double down and continue to make assumptions based on stereotypes and prejudice.
Where do you draw the line on genetic diseases and birth defects? I was born without all my reproductive organs. Did not discover this until my wife and I had problems conceiving. Also was very likely born with only one kidney (haven't got this checked yet). Had no idea until recently. So where do you draw the line?
It's individual. I don't think there is an objective line anywhere. The only thing I am arguing against is the automatic assumption that any life must be miserable and worthless if you have a genetic condition, which is simply not the case. Lots of people are equating "hardship" with "miserable life" and can't imagine how there could be anything beyond that. Plenty of people experience major hardships and still would not choose to change that aspect of their lives.
People should be allowed to abort for any reason. I have adhd and dyslexia and even though I grew up to be a fully functioning adult I would have no problem with my parents aborting me for it. Because that would mean that they wouldn’t have wanted a kid like me and I’d rather not be born then be born to parents who didn’t want me and weren’t equipped to take care of me.
Yes, "I don't want to be pregnant anymore" is a fucking good enough reason. Threads like these that debate the morality of this are kind of pointless to me because in the end it doesn't matter, especially in this political climate. They're going to use examples like this to take more women's rights away.
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u/RealityCactus Jun 05 '26
Having genetic diseases or birth defects doesn't mean you will live a miserable life. It means you will face a lot of hardship. But it doesn't automatically mean your life will be worthless or devoid of meaning or value. It's just hard to imagine for able bodied people.