The new ethical controversy?

[freshnesschronic]

Originally Posted by lookout123

is that good?

Why isn't it good?

[Hime]

I think that the tests should be available, and I don't think it should be illegal to abort a fetus due to test results. After all, all families are different and not all would be able to care for a severely disabled child. For a poor family (who would currently be less likely to have access to prenatal testing), it can be devastating.

My mom is in a book club with a group of friends, many of whom met because their children go to the same school for mentally challenged kids. All of them love their kids, who range from completely autistic to slightly retarded, and are glad to have them despite their difficulties. However, all of these moms are successful career women and/or married to successful career men, live in some of the poshest neighborhoods in the area, and are able to send their kids to a special school and get them excellent medical care. I don't expect every family to be able to have the same success that they have.

[Hime]

Originally Posted by freshnesschronic

Why isn't it good?

A lot of people feel that the increase in human life spans is bad for the planet as a whole.

[lookout123]

Originally Posted by freshnesschronic

Why isn't it good?

i didn't say it wasn't good, i was just curious about why you would assume it was.

personally i have no interest in extending the duration of my life. now if you can show me how to keep my body working the way it was at 29 for the 70 years then let's talk. I'd like that. But if everyone on the planet is doing the same thing we could run out of space pretty quickly.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by lookout123

But if everyone on the planet is doing the same thing we could run out of space pretty quickly.

With the overpopulation thing, it isn't so much of how many people there are or how they live, but how they live their lives. The world could potentially support a population twice the size it is now but we would collapse instantly if half the population lives at 1st world middle class standards.

[lookout123]

then why would we even want to do something that would increase the population?

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

With the overpopulation thing, it isn't so much of how many people there are or how they live, but how they live their lives. The world could potentially support a population twice the size it is now but we would collapse instantly if half the population lives at 1st world middle class standards.

Well then the world certainly cannot support twice the population can it?

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Well then the world certainly cannot support twice the population can it?

I don't know for sure that we can support a population twice the size it is now but we can support a population bigger than it is now if we really tried, those people being born in extreme poverty being the catch.