31–40 of 142 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects Why? Unless the Down Syndrome patients themselves have children, then there wouldn't be an evolutionary impact.
Why wouldn’t the Down Syndrome patients themselves have children?
I think there is a certain tension between on the one hand being against children being aborted for downs syndrome, but being OK with children with no detected abnormalities being aborted for lifestyle/career reasons.
> Yet a gulf seems to separate the publicly expressed attitudes and private decisions. I would be more surprised if this were not true. It's not very PC to say, but quite simply being different is not inherently a moral good. Downs Syndrome in particular is more controversial, because people who have this disorder typically are happy in their lives. I've spent a not insignificant part of my life working with teenager…
I have a daughter with Down's, and I agree with what you've said here. I love my daughter and would lay down my life for her in an instant, but of course that doesn't mean I'd glad she has Down's and all the related health issues that can go with it.
> On the flip side, all of them required life-long assistance and care, never able to function completely independently, and lacking in almost all other meaningful quality of life factors.
This paragraph did surprise me though. Attitudes towards Down's have changed a lot in the past couple of decades, and at least in most of Europe, it's not uncommon for children with Down's to get a mainstream education and in adulthood for many to live (largely) independently. The level of intellectual impairment and physical and mental illnesses does vary a lot however, and undoubtedly some people will need life-long care regardless of the opportunities available to them.
Special attention must be given to evaluating the morality of prenatal diagnostic techniques which enable the early detection of possible anomalies in the unborn child. In view of the complexity of these techniques, an accurate and systematic moral judgment is necessary. When they do not involve disproportionate risks for the child and the mother, and are meant to make possible early therapy or even to favour a seren…
Ah yes, the pope that as now comes to light has protected pedophiles in the church for decades. Really the authority we should all look up to.
(2) The human institution of the Church, especially where wealthy, is highly corrupt and I say that as a devout Catholic who believes Christ established the Catholic Church as His church (tldr the human & divine Church are separate things).
(3) One of the likely reasons that Benedict abdicated was that he did not want to be "taken advantage of" as he saw various Vatican higher-ups do with the aging and frail JPII.
(4) JPII sadly dismissed cases of allegations. One thing to keep in mind though is when he was growing up in Nazi and then Soviet occupied Poland he would see the occupying forces falsely accuse "resistance" figures of abuse in order to hobble their reputation.
(5) While JPII did make mistakes, it is also my belief that many Vatican figures still-living use him as a scapegoat to hide their own errors. They are doing their best to hide any and all investigation and purely say "this is the fault of people who are now dead." They do not want any oversight. For example, why did they choose to finally release the long-awaited report on Cardinal McCarrick, the most prominent US abuser, the week of the presidential election in the US? Aiming to have it buried!
Prenatal testing is one of the few solutions to this "post-darwinian" world (not in the usual sense of the word) with its modern medicine that will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects. Though slightly more ethical from my point of view would be gene-editing to remove those defects, instead of just terminating the fetus. Edit: Also I'm not talking about down syndrome specifically. There's a lo…
Just because before there was no way to check/filter, did not guarantee that child would have a chance to reproduce.
The removal or inclusion of genetic defects usually stops if you can't reproduce and ends the family line with that descendent full stop.
Special attention must be given to evaluating the morality of prenatal diagnostic techniques which enable the early detection of possible anomalies in the unborn child. In view of the complexity of these techniques, an accurate and systematic moral judgment is necessary. When they do not involve disproportionate risks for the child and the mother, and are meant to make possible early therapy or even to favour a seren…
The quote seems to imply there is value in the suffering of a disabled child and its parents - suffering for its own sake - which is absolutely horrific.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects Why? Unless the Down Syndrome patients themselves have children, then there wouldn't be an evolutionary impact.
Why wouldn’t the Down Syndrome patients themselves have children?
Prenatal testing is one of the few solutions to this "post-darwinian" world (not in the usual sense of the word) with its modern medicine that will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects. Though slightly more ethical from my point of view would be gene-editing to remove those defects, instead of just terminating the fetus. Edit: Also I'm not talking about down syndrome specifically. There's a lo…
"modern medicine that will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects." Citation needed... A lot of autosomal recessive genetic disease is a result of humans reproducing within their in-group, making the likelihood of two carriers of the same variant having offspring with that expressed variant. BRCA1 / BRCA2 in the Ashkenazi Jewish population are a common example. Nothing about medical genetic test…
Prenatal testing is one of the few solutions to this "post-darwinian" world (not in the usual sense of the word) with its modern medicine that will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects. Though slightly more ethical from my point of view would be gene-editing to remove those defects, instead of just terminating the fetus. Edit: Also I'm not talking about down syndrome specifically. There's a lo…
"modern medicine that will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects." Citation needed... A lot of autosomal recessive genetic disease is a result of humans reproducing within their in-group, making the likelihood of two carriers of the same variant having offspring with that expressed variant. BRCA1 / BRCA2 in the Ashkenazi Jewish population are a common example. Nothing about medical genetic test…
Prenatal testing is one of the few solutions to this "post-darwinian" world (not in the usual sense of the word) with its modern medicine that will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects. Though slightly more ethical from my point of view would be gene-editing to remove those defects, instead of just terminating the fetus. Edit: Also I'm not talking about down syndrome specifically. There's a lo…
> will result in mankind accumulating more and more genetic defects Why? Unless the Down Syndrome patients themselves have children, then there wouldn't be an evolutionary impact.