woodsmoke Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 99 Balloons: Celebrating the Life of Elliot Mooney I'm such a cynical fucker. Someone posted this to FB today with the explanation she's not a Christian but was moved by the "incredible power of [the parents'] faith." Gave it a watch, threw up in my mouth a little bit, then reposted it myself asking "If God's so great, why didn't he just not fuck the kid up in the first place? Or, y'know, actually heal him or something?" Part of me wanted to take it further and highlight all the babies who don't get to live for 99 days and ask what sweet widdow Ewiot here did to make him so special, but I figured I'd sufficiently made my feelings known and didn't want to belabor the point. Maybe the rest of y'all will have a bit more humanity than I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted June 18, 2009 Super Moderator Share Posted June 18, 2009 Maybe the rest of y'all will have a bit more humanity than I. Sorry, go fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsmoke Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 Well not you, obviously. I was referring there to humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light_of_Reason Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Trisomy 18. Nasty genetic thing. Having a son who required open heart surgery at birth, I can sympathize with the parents a great deal. That said, however, if I found out before birth of something as serious and bad as this, I would have highly recommended abortion to my wife. I couldn't stand to put a child through the suffering of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhampir Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Trisomy 18. Nasty genetic thing. Having a son who required open heart surgery at birth, I can sympathize with the parents a great deal. That said, however, if I found out before birth of something as serious and bad as this, I would have highly recommended abortion to my wife. I couldn't stand to put a child through the suffering of that. That's because it's not entirely for the kid's sake that they carried him to term. It's about the "enrichment" this sort of thing could bring to their lives. It's about the lesson God was trying to teach them, and what could be shown to other people. So because doctors' estimates and measurements aren't always correct, and are almost never 100% accurate, and because medicine is not an exact science, that makes the fact that this kid lived for 99 days, despite the doctor's prognosis a miracle? The kid had a hole in his heart and an undeveloped lung, and zero chance for long term survival, and the Humane thing is to bring it to term regardless? I can't help but think that was an agony for the kid to have survived that long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light_of_Reason Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 That's because it's not entirely for the kid's sake that they carried him to term. It's about the "enrichment" this sort of thing could bring to their lives. It's about the lesson God was trying to teach them, and what could be shown to other people. And that part sickens me. You know they wouldn't take a complete stranger off the street and torture them until they died, but that is exactly what they did to their child. So because doctors' estimates and measurements aren't always correct, and are almost never 100% accurate, and because medicine is not an exact science, that makes the fact that this kid lived for 99 days, despite the doctor's prognosis a miracle? The kid had a whole in his heart and an undeveloped lung, and zero chance for long term survival, and the Humane thing is to bring it to term regardless? I can't help but think that was an agony for the kid to have survived that long. Absolutely agreed. No miracle in that. My wife and I considered abortion when we learned of my son's heart disease. Then we researched the specifics of it, found he had a phenomenal chance of survival, and the thought never entered our thoughts again. Had we found something with slim to no survival chance, I would have made a case for aborting. This is a case that definitely needed aborting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thegodthatfailed Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 At first, I thought you meant this : Found it much more inspiring than the baby story! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShackledNoMore Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 This hits home, and it is a horrible, hideous thing. While my wife was pregnant, the obstetrician believed our son to have Trisomy 18, and of course under the circumstances we immediately arranged an amniocentesis, which would definitively confirm or rule out the diagnosis. The test was negative, but had it turned out positive, my wife and I all but had our bags packed to head out to the abortion clinic. We would never, NEVER be so cruel as to bring a child of ours into the world with a condition like this. This unfortunate child's experience with the disease was typical. In fact, Eliot survived longer than most. A most horrible very short life with major organs so defective that they barely keep the child alive and profound mental retardation is all but assured. Only 1% of Trisomy 18 babies that have survived long enough to be born see their 10th birthday, pretty much only those who have mosaic Trisomy 18 in which the mutation is present in only a portion of their cells, and then only the "lucky" ones since even the mosaic variety ranges from really, really awful at its best to totally horrific depending on what percentage of your cells are affected and where they are. In case you are not familiar with the condition, but interested, here is the Wikipedia page. And then I read the comments on the page. When I watched, the parents were given high praise in every single comment on the first page. Things like "May all the babies of the world- born? and unborn - have parents like you." Well, I know that I would not post a negative comment for something like this--I'd feel I was being cruel, and probably many or most others who were not "inspired" by the story feel the same. But how can it be said that NOT sparing your child a short, short life of excruciating suffering is inspiring or a sign of being a wonderful parent? I am saddened. Light of Reason and Dhampir, you are right on target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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