Potentiality
As some of you may know, I have an older brother. Though he occasionally drives me nuts, I love him.
As none of you probably know, I might have had another older sibling. My mother got pregnant once before she got pregnant with my brother, but miscarried a month or so along. I hope I would have loved this potential brother or sister as much as I love my real brother. I really hope it, because if that potential child had lived, my real brother wouldn't have.
My mother's miscarriage? Was less than nine months before she got pregnant with my real live brother. My real live brother I love exists because of that miscarriage. Every time people talk about abortion or about testing embryos for potentially life-threatening conditions (the article in the NY Times that set this off), I think of my brother and my potential sibling. Every person, every child who does exist, exists because of the millions of other potential people who don't. There are millions of sperm cells in the average ejaculation, millions of other potential genetic combinations that could have resulted...but didn't. Each of them would have been a different person from me, from you, our siblings not ourselves. If you turned back time to five minutes before my own conception and re-ran time, I wouldn't exist and some other person would. And you know what? I'm good with that.
Either I have a pre-existing soul, or I don't. If I do have a pre-existing soul "I" would still be, I would just be a different child to different parents (or I suppose to the same parents). If I don't have a pre-existing soul, I would never exist to care. I'm either predestined or I'm not, and nothing my parents could have done would have changed that.
As none of you probably know, I might have had another older sibling. My mother got pregnant once before she got pregnant with my brother, but miscarried a month or so along. I hope I would have loved this potential brother or sister as much as I love my real brother. I really hope it, because if that potential child had lived, my real brother wouldn't have.
My mother's miscarriage? Was less than nine months before she got pregnant with my real live brother. My real live brother I love exists because of that miscarriage. Every time people talk about abortion or about testing embryos for potentially life-threatening conditions (the article in the NY Times that set this off), I think of my brother and my potential sibling. Every person, every child who does exist, exists because of the millions of other potential people who don't. There are millions of sperm cells in the average ejaculation, millions of other potential genetic combinations that could have resulted...but didn't. Each of them would have been a different person from me, from you, our siblings not ourselves. If you turned back time to five minutes before my own conception and re-ran time, I wouldn't exist and some other person would. And you know what? I'm good with that.
Either I have a pre-existing soul, or I don't. If I do have a pre-existing soul "I" would still be, I would just be a different child to different parents (or I suppose to the same parents). If I don't have a pre-existing soul, I would never exist to care. I'm either predestined or I'm not, and nothing my parents could have done would have changed that.