At 18:22 5/24/03, Keith Thomas wrote:
....>
>Might it not be the case that people of chld-bearing age today are already
>damaged by the malnutrition of their parents and the pollutants in our
>environment?  Further, that some artificial support is the only way to
>overcome this damage.
>
>I have myself as an example.  I was born in the 1940s and would not have
>lived through my birth had it not been for the technology used on me in
>the maternity hospital.  I was destined to die.  One of my sons was a
>breach birth.  He also was destined to die (possibly with my wife) had it
>not been for a forceps delivery.
>
>So the world is increasingly populated with people who would not have
>survived in the Pleistocene and it may be that the time for confining our
>treatments to Pleistocene options has already passed.
>
>Keith


Yeah. That's exactly how I feel. I was also born in the forties, to two
well-meaning people who bottle-fed me and subjected me to 18 years of
second hand smoke. They both drank and smoked before and after my birth. I
got all the standard inoculations. By any standard except the one I now
apply, I had it pretty good. But the early insults caused all sorts of
"little" problems. I never felt I should reproduce, and so did not.

But, to speak more generally, I think it's a damn shame when medical
heroics are used to "save" defective children. I don't believe in giving
out heroism medals to parents who insist on reproducing faulty material and
then sacrifice their lives to taking care of a soul trapped in a lousy
body. I deal a lot with dogs, and you can see dramatic changes towards
health in each generation that is raw fed and vax-free. I'm not advising
eugenics, but I'd just love it if only the healthier specimens got to
breed, or wanted to. But that attitude is not at all natural, and it would
be easier to fix the health of the entire world than to tell people they
can't breed.

Practically, a few years of good diet, maybe some homeopathy to clean out
the real chronic stuff, and the knowledge to raise a kid well should be
enough to feel ok about reproducing. It's sad when people know better but
go ahead and saddle a child with trouble going in. Our parents may not have
known any better, but that didn't make it easier for us.

ginny

All stunts performed without a net!