Elias Vetter
As every Thursday morning I am sitting in the bus heading towards the railway station. The rain is dripping down the windows. Typical Dutch weather in autumn. Next to me sitting in a wheel share a disabled boy is looking out the window. The position and the way his legs and arms look suggest that he barely can use both. When he turns around mumbling something I could not understand I realize myself that he cannot speak properly as well. The idea of not being able to use your feed, no running, no riding your bike, is already terrifying to me. Not be able to speak seems even more frustrating. But even with all his handicaps this boy does not seem to be unhappy. He even smiles at me. Like he wants to say “Hey! How is it going”. I do not believe that disabled people cannot have a happy life. So why do we treat it as a diseases? Why do parents choose to abort a disabled child? Is that responsible?
A disabled child can be a big burden for parents in sense of that it changes their life entirely. Children do that anyway but the attention and the live long dependency on help of a disabled child is different from a “normal” child. I really would like to think that this reason is the one reason why parents decide to abort. But I actually believe that a lot of parents do not want an “imperfect” child. Maybe it is because they do not want their child to be different. Maybe it is because they want their child to be as successful as they were or even more successful.
On the other side stands the argument that parents choosing for abortion are killing an already fully functioning human being. The question behind that argument is when a human being is alive. Sure there is no easy answer to that. Another argument is the question of the risk. No doctor can tell parents definitely if their child will be disabled. So it is as well a question of what risk you are willing to take.
The most important reason to me why disabled children deserve to live is because their life’s are just as valuable. They can have as a fulfilling live as “normal” children. For sure you cannot obligate parents with the burden of a disabled child. But what at least should be done is to make them think. Not make it feel like it is normal and a common procedure because it is everything but that. I would like to see that parents to take their responsibility and do not choose for the most easy and common solution. In the end it id imperfection what makes our world so great. No one is alike. Everybody has his own personality and its own story to tell.