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.