anitram said:
What do you do about something like Tay Sachs, where the baby will never speak, see, recognize anyone and will live maybe 2-3 years in agony before dying? That wouldn't be a medical necessity abortion, but as a matter of public policy, could be worthy of discussion, I suppose.
this is indeed an interesting question.
Melon/Ormus once brought up the condition of
Harlequin-type Ichthyosis as another example.
if you knew your child would be brought into the world with a terrible, incurable condition that would limit its lifespan to a few days, or even a few years, and much of that time would be spent in physical pain, would you choose abortion?
there are some cases of this, and while most babies born die, there is a very small chance of survival to adolescence and even adulthood, and there is one adult with the condition who competes in triathalons. these are the exceptions, not the rule:
[q]United Kingdom
A Real Families documentary broadcast on ITV1 in the United Kingdom in 2005 (and later rebroadcast in other countries) showed the lives of two pairs of sisters afflicted with the condition: Lucy and Hannah Betts (aged 18 and 15), and Dana and Lara Bowen (aged 8 and 1½). The girls all went through a daily routine of getting up in the small hours of the morning and bathing for two hours to soften the skin, scrubbing hard to remove as much of the hard extra skin as possible, and then covering their entire bodies in a thick layer of moisturiser. A second and third "creaming" as they called it had to be performed in the afternoon and at bedtime to soften the skin. Even with this treatment a thick layer of hyperkeratotic skin covered them and they were plagued with infections. Scales on the inside of the eyelids had blinded one of Lucy's eyes and left the other eye with 10% vision. Hannah Betts was also a victim of cerebral palsy. Their skin was said to grow at fourteen times the normal rate. Vacuuming the carpets was necessary at least a couple of times a day to remove the shed skin.
The children were said to be four of just seven in the United Kingdom, Lucy being the longest surviving of any such child in the country ever. The chances of suffering from the condition were given as roughly one in a million in general, and exactly one in four in families already with one such child. These figures would indicate that one in 500 people have the recessive gene, giving a one-in-250,000 chance of two unrelated people bringing these genes together, and finally there being a one-in-four chance of these genes being brought together and causing the condition.
Despite the high chance of bringing forth a second baby with the painful condition, both families decided to gamble on having another baby, with the result that a second such baby was indeed born. Furthermore, despite the fact that their daughters were carrying the gene and thus had at least a one-in-2000 (instead of one-in-1,000,000) chance of having harlequin babies themselves (and also passing this increased probability to future generations), the parents of Lucy in particular were keen on her marrying and having children.
USA
In San Diego, there is a young man named Ryan González who has this condition. González has not only survived to adulthood but also thrives as a triathlete. His treatment involves dosing with isotretinoin (also known as Accutane), the constant use of lotions to keep the skin supple, and use of a very high-caloric diet of at least 7,500 calories a day, including a nightly feeding tube of pure protein due to the constant shedding of his skin, which is believed to shed seven to ten times faster than unaffected skin.
Ryan takes part in the triathlon for athletes with disabilities and swims regularly[/q]