Someone want to make sense of this for me?
There's a family that attends our church. Your typical nuclear family--husband, wife, surrogate begotten daughter. Both she and her husband are rabidly anti-choice (they both are also pro-death penalty and pro-Bush, so I refuse to call them pro-life). In fact, her husband decided I wasn't allowed to baby-sit their daughter because I'm pro-choice. They almost left the church when I was put in charge of children's ministries, but their daughter is still too young for children's church, so it hasn't become an issue yet.
The woman in question has an inability to carry children to term. She just had her 16th miscarriage, of course wanting all the gifts and sympathy and prayers, even though she knows she can't have a baby, confirmed by doctors and, hello, 16 miscarriages. Her husband didn't want to adopt, he wanted in his words "a child of his flesh," which is why they finally used a surrogate, though they're still trying to have a normal pregnancy.
So why the hell would they continue to get pregnant? Seriously. She's a MD, he works in medical technology, they know what causes pregnancy. If they are so pro-life, believing that a baby is sacred from the moment of conception, why why why would they continue to create a life they know will die? At this point, I think she's on no higher moral ground than someone going to a clinic and having the procedure done.
Or am I just a cold-hearted jerk?
PS: In case there's confusion, I fully support this woman's right to reproduce--or not reproduce, as the case may be. I just find her (and her husband's) extreme views, to the point that they cause hurt feelings and conflict among the people around them, extraordinarily hypocritical when contrasted with their actions. You think that her difficulties would give them some empathy and perspective.
The woman in question has an inability to carry children to term. She just had her 16th miscarriage, of course wanting all the gifts and sympathy and prayers, even though she knows she can't have a baby, confirmed by doctors and, hello, 16 miscarriages. Her husband didn't want to adopt, he wanted in his words "a child of his flesh," which is why they finally used a surrogate, though they're still trying to have a normal pregnancy.
So why the hell would they continue to get pregnant? Seriously. She's a MD, he works in medical technology, they know what causes pregnancy. If they are so pro-life, believing that a baby is sacred from the moment of conception, why why why would they continue to create a life they know will die? At this point, I think she's on no higher moral ground than someone going to a clinic and having the procedure done.
Or am I just a cold-hearted jerk?
PS: In case there's confusion, I fully support this woman's right to reproduce--or not reproduce, as the case may be. I just find her (and her husband's) extreme views, to the point that they cause hurt feelings and conflict among the people around them, extraordinarily hypocritical when contrasted with their actions. You think that her difficulties would give them some empathy and perspective.