Friday, June 6, 2014

The Great Gift of Conception Control

It is my opinion that conception control is a gift given to abolish the need for killing. Scientists blessed with the ability to inhibit procreation, while enabling the physical enjoyment of a couple that promotes family stability, are to be lauded for using their gifts for good. It is a mystery to me why so many of the religious "right" have identified conception control with abortion in order to stigmatize and attempt to abolish both.

While I am not a proponent of abortion as a method of birth control, I do believe that it is a greater wrong to give birth to an unwanted child, and to abuse the child (through neglect, words, or otherwise), than it is to give the seed of a potential child, a conceptus, a painless exit back into eternity.

As a mother of both a daughter and a son, I was certainly not willing to have anyone declare whether either of them was genetically superior enough to be allowed to live. I realized that, once I chose to keep the conceptus, I would have to put the life of the new being above my own survival, and I freely chose to do this. Parents who can't, won't, or don't do this should be able to end the potential person before they bring into the world another Homo sapiens animal that will have little chance to become a full human.

I submit that we, as humans, with the ability to make informed choices, have a responsibility to prevent the birth of any more of our own children than we and our communities are ready to shelter, above our own instincts for self and our own genetic preservation, from harm. What is the greater wrong? To euthanize a potential life, or to bring a child into a world where he or she is guaranteed a life of nothing but abuse?

Effective conception control gives Homo sapiens the ability to control where and when we have children, based on the resources available to us to protect and provide for their needs physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I cannot understand why any thinking person, with any compassion for parents and/or children, would object to accepting this scientific advancement as a blessing to be embraced.

When the preachers of religion refuse medical intervention for all their own physical discomforts and diseases, I think it will be time to entertain their assertions that we should all, without scientific/medical intervention, acquiesce to "the will of God" in conception. When every conceptus, including those created in fertility factories, is assured of the resources to live in full human safety, acceptance, and dignity after birth, we can begin to talk about the morality and justice of forcing unwanted pregnancies to be brought to the births of more Homo sapiens on our earth.

There has been no greater gift in my life than the privilege of mothering two Homo sapiens that seem to have, as adults, chosen full humanity for themselves. The sacrifices were more than I could ever have imagined, even though I was blessed with healthy children and a co-parent who did support his offspring. The rewards are much greater than the sacrifices because my children choose to act as adults not dependent on my continued sacrifice for their survival and that of their children. Not all who conceive are so blessed as I have been.

We, as a society, are already allowing those with choices bought with power and privilege to choose when their own children will be created. It is injustice to deny the same human dignity of decision to the poor who serve us in our greatest times of vulnerability. That is, unless I am correct in believing that the privileged have a vested interest in continuing to encourage creation of more desperate poor people to serve them.

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