ethics

Today, we had one of our slightly more thought provoking ethics lesson. Ethics lessons are actually pointless, but this one was one of the better ones. Anyway, what would you do if you were given the option to terminate the pregnancy of a mother whose child is going to be born who will need immediate surgery after which the child will still be severely mentally retarded coupled with respiratory problems? There are many arguments for and against termination but some of them have certain underlying principles that alot of people do not recognise.
One argument would have been to terminate when taking into consideration the 'suffering' the child may have to go through, all the stigma and difficulties to fit in. But a lot of people do not seem to consider the prospect that the mentally retarded child would not really know he or she is mentally retarded. and hence no stigma or difficulties. the child would not know that he is not amongst the norm, and hence would feel no different about the issue. any stigma associated would only be acknowledged by the parents.

2 humongously hectic days ahead....