Quote:
Originally Posted by SpankyTheWhale
You have no idea what you are talking about.
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I greatly appreciate your ad hominem attack. It brings a smile to my face to see such an ancient tradition still in practice. You are, in fact, correct. I know nothing of the situation; rather, I hit keys randomly and by some act of God (and spellcheck) readable sentences emerge. Since they've beaten the odds to get here perhaps you could address them?
In response to Makedde:
I'm not heated, that's how I often comment - a listing of thoughts that I used to arrive at my conclusion.
In clarification, I too believe the child should be the focus (if not the entirety) of the decision. And there is certainly a point where life can be a curse. However I'm concerned that many would rationalize that a child would be better off not being born before it became true. That girl will endure never ending taunts from her peers. Home schooling seems promising. As long as she looks like that her life will be of a significantly lower quality. But I do not think that her life won't be worth living, or that it isn't at least worth letting her choose for herself. I also think the pain of the surgery is likely preferable to the stigma of that image, so if life with the look is worth it, life with surgery to fix it is even more worth it.
In hindsight to my prior argument, there is a major flaw: if I had such a face tomorrow morning I would have the mental fortitude of an adult to endure the stares and ridicule and the pain of the surgery. Big difference. But I doubt that in 20 years she'll look back and wish she'd never been born.
To conclude that you would give up is a very acceptable answer, it allows one to stop pondering life in such a state, but is it really true? Assuming that the disfigurement was cosmetic one would only suffer a loss in socialization - one would still be able to interact with family and interact socially through anonymous means (you could still talk to us, that alone is worth living for, right?
). It would cause a major depression, to be sure, but it doesn't necessarily require a suicide. Is social interaction all that makes life living?