07.23
As can often be the case when one is monitoring hashtags or specific topics on Twitter, something that one can’t quite comprehend jumps up off the screen and gives you pause for thought.
Recently, a tweet caught my eye.
Posted by @mmaryannwright - it was a link to a story about two couples who were suing a hospital for failing to detect that their children were carrying the condition Trisomy 21
The allegation is that ante-natal testing was negligent and failed to detect the presence of the condition.
The parents claim that had they been made aware of the presence of the condition that they would have terminated their respective pregnancies.
The couples are suing for the depression, shock and anxiety that they have suffered as a result of having believed that they were to have a healthy child, free from defect; only to discover that they in fact were presented with a child with a chromosomal disorder.
They are also seeking compensation for the continuing costs of raising a child with such a disorder.
One of the children also suffers heart, kidney and thyroid problems and can’t walk.
The tweet that accompanied the link was:
These kind of people make me sick
That is her opinion, that is fine. I don’t know her personal circumstance, whether or not she has raised a disabled child or has a disabled sibling and as such, it would be wrong of me to form an opinion about her as a result of her tweet.
What struck me though was that in saying what she did – that they made her “sick”, she appeared to show absolutely no empathy for what the couples in question experienced.
To declare my hand (I am not going to say “pro choice” – such a misnomer) – I believe that people have the right to make an informed choice about matters which have the potential to impact their lives, adversely or otherwise.
I replied and the conversation want this way:
What I took issue with was the arrogance implicit in what this person was saying.
“These kind of people” make her “sick”.
No explanation as to why, just a judgement, no explanation as to whether or not she had walked a kilometre in their shoes, just a scathing character assessment that throughout the fragmented Twitter conversation, appeared to show a complete inability of this individual to empathise with four distressed human beings.
In her final comment to me; she said “I hope for your sake you’re trolling.”
The supreme arrogance of such a statement, along with this persons willingness to condemn people for being so terrible as to be desirous of having a choice; tells me a lot about her character, values and morals.
I will leave you to make your own assessment of this person – without knowing her personal circumstances, it would be wrong of me to perform an analysis of her character.
What I will say however is that nobody has the right to judge a fellow human being without knowing what that person has experienced, what their personal circumstances are.
Unfortunately a driving force behind the judgement of the actions of others is religion.
To suggest that abortion is wrong, that same sex relationships are abhorrent, that an unmarried woman is unfit to be the leader of a nation, that women are inferior to men – these are the constructs of religion.
Interestingly, and I am not suggesting that the person who tweeted the original tweet is religious, not for one moment – but the religious who condemn things such as abortion, homosexuality and the like forget that in their sacred text, it says:
Leviticus 21:
16 Then the Lord said to Moses,
17 “Give the following instructions to Aaron: In all future generations, none of your descendants who has any defect will qualify to offer food to his God.
18 No one who has a defect qualifies, whether he is blind, lame, disfigured, deformed,
19 or has a broken foot or arm,
20 or is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or has a defective eye, or skin sores or scabs, or damaged testicles.
21 No descendant of Aaron who has a defect may approach the altar to present special gifts to the Lord. Since he has a defect, he may not approach the altar to offer food to his God.
22 However, he may eat from the food offered to God, including the holy offerings and the most holy offerings.
23 Yet because of his physical defect, he may not enter the room behind the inner curtain or approach the altar, for this would defile my holy places. I am the Lord who makes them holy.”
For mine, this is the “sacred book” of the Christians vigorously promoting abortion.
Of course they had to get the “testicles” in there didn’t they? Jesus Christ – why are they all so obsessed with sex?!
As such, no true Christian can condemn abortion for “theraputic” reasons if they wish to claim that they honour the word of their god.
UPDATE
After I posted this, the tweets from the individual in question were (read from bottom up) somewhat amusing. I didn’t bite back and was quite nice to her, providing my email address should she wish to discuss the matter and offering her an unfettered, unedited right of reply on this page.
To date, she hasn’t accepted.
Defamation?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by leapingjudas, leapingjudas. leapingjudas said: @mmaryannwright Thank you for the discussion – it got me thinking and so I posted something about it http://bit.ly/bqbiGO [...]
I love your writing, as always.
World is full of ignorant people. Good post.
Excellent article, Prince Judas, as always.
I find it disturbing that some people feel that they have the authority to judge other people’s choices, without even knowing who the people in question are, or where they’re coming from.
In the case Maryann Wright (the original poster of that tweet) so harshly criticizes, these two couples were denied their right to choose what to do, by depriving them of the necessary information to do so, that is all. Regardless of what they would have done had they gotten the proper information, this is their right.
What if it was the other way around and the information they didn’t get would have saved the babies’ lives?
I’d like to invite you, Maryann, to imagine for a moment (as an experiment) that you are deprived of your right to choose what you think would be in your best interest in any given situation. Would you think differently?
You’re welcome to try to sue me if it makes you happy, that is the beauty of having rights, right?
It is amazing really, people are so full of themselves sometimes. I wonder what that woman would have done had she been in the same position? Having the choice of aborting a child that is “defective” over choosing a life where she would undoubtedly be looking after this child into adulthood, assuming the child lives that long.
We have the ability to test for these disorders, and if a zygote is defective, it’s still just a bunch of cells. Since I don’t think people have souls, the idea of aborting a fetus is fine with me, especially if the potential child is going to suffer an awful life.
What I really dislike, as do you, is the blatant disregard of empathy for the couple who are suing. I mean, I don’t really know if suing is the right thing to do, and whether the doctors can really be considered negligent, but for the parents I am sure this is life-shattering to say the least. And these attitudes are only perpetuated by a church system which sees itself as having the right to intervene into people’s lives with a bunch of arbitrary rules (which of course as we’ve all seen they have trouble adhering to themselves). The bible is not the place to look when seeking fair ooutcomes.
As Miguel said, the world is full of ignorant people.
As human beings, It seems that we have a supreme arrogance about what we think should live and die, With an undue bias on human life.
I feel nothing but pity and sadness for those that would judge others without first examining the facts, and allowing those people to make an informed decision based on those facts. Instead there are that that would use their baseless dogmatic views and ideas to pass judgement, as if they were some how better than other people. I feel that such arrogance and ignorance is an undesirable trait that humans will need to re-examine, if we are to further the survival of our species.
An Idealistic view? maybe…
I agree with the right to choice. I also agree that to say “these people make me sick” shows a lack of empathy and a dogmatic certainty that i always find disturbing.
The same dogmatic over simplification is also disturbing when applied to pro-choice arguments. I don’t think abortion should ever become an easy option.
What bothered me about the story was the couples decision to sue the hospital. If a doctor deliberately misled the couple then maybe, just maybe there is a case to answer. If a mistake was made or the test results simply didn’t show up then I’m sorry but you gather all your resources and bring up your disabled children as best you can with as much help and support the rest of society can give.
There is no ‘right’ to have perfect children, perfect health or a charmed life without tragedy or simple misfortune.
So your suggesting that people with a deformity or mental illness shouldn’t being given the right to live? Now that makes me sick. All of you make me sick. You have a go at this woman for not having empathy for the couple but what about the child? You have no empathy or sympathy for the child. Whether you like it or not, mentally disabled people are equal to us. They usually have a heart, a brain, arms, legs, eyes, mouth, ears and a soul just as you do.
Also don’t use verses of the Bible to suit your benefit. Your taking that verse out of context. Read the whole Bible and put it together.
Oh and for the whole “its a foetus’ thing, It’s still a human being – its not a some other crazy thing is it? When you give birth to a dog, than you have somewhat of an argument.
I am not sure that I can bring myself to enter into a discussion with someone who doesn’t understand the fundamental principles of the English language vis a vis the use of possessive adjectives.
None of the people who have posted here own “suggesting”.
Nor should I really bother pointing out to someone the inherent flaw in their self contradictory argument.
I will, however.
The bible states that deformed, handicapped, mentally challenged people are less than human and unfit in the eyes of the Judeo Christian god.
Pray, do tell, how am I taking it out of context?
As you say, one needs to read the whole bible and put it together – when one does that, it appears even more abhorrent than just those verses that I have “taken out of context”.
Please explain what they *really* meant when they said that handicapped people were an abomination.
Please explain why a gay man or woman is “sinful” and please also let me know if you have ever worn clothes woven of two different fabrics.
There really is no point in furthering this discourse with 17 year old fundamentalist like yourself however.
I shall merely wish you well in the blinkered, closed minded world in which you live in and hope that, for your sake, that you are able to evolve.