Should mentally disabled people be kept alive?

[hpkeeper]

first off: I'm not stating my opinion, it's just a question of yours.


Okay... now:
Do you think it is right to keep mentally ill people alive? For instance.... there are some people that are in wheel chairs that are druling on themselves that have no use to our society, they can't feed themselves and they can't perform everyday functions that the average person could perform. I know it's inhumane to kill them just because they are like that, but what is their function in society other than to provide a job for a caretaker of them? Someone with Down Syndrome may learn to do something over a period of time but if you were a worker in a factory or something and all they knew was to push this button at a certain time... would you feel very safe with them working next to you? My point in asking this question is that people complain about people who are put in jail that we have pay tax money for... but doesn't our tax money go to these people who are of no function to society? at least a guy in jail can be rehabilitated and thrown back into society where he can be a benefit to the economy. I'm not saying that if these people have been alive for a while to kill them.. if they're a teenager... let them live, but if you know at birth that your baby is going to have a mental disability that will cripple them so bad that they can't benefit others within the society is it right to keep them alive at that point...?

So what is your opinion?

I can feel it... this thread is going to get me in trouble
Need some vetran posters to post on this thread to keep order (GF, Red Dawn)

 

[Pastore]

my first post was stupid, and didnt answer the question...

i think if a baby is born with brain damage, and is going to be handicapped, it is the parents responsibility to take care of them, and yes, keep them alive... the person would probably not have a benefit for the society, but, what about homeless people? i dont think they benefit society, but we dont kill them off...

 

[hpkeeper]

like I said.... at birth... if it's a family matter that's been around for 30 years, they've put in their time in the working world and they've benefited the society while they could. So they are exempt from this question.

 

[Dedpuhl]

It's a tough decision. If there is a lame horse, it is put to sleep. If there is a old dog that can't function anymore, it is put to sleep. If there is a horrible defect to an animal (a lot of time, not always), it is put to sleep. If it is a human, it is kept alive in a special home.

Natural Selection and Survival of the fittest doesn't apply to humans.

 

[IamDavid]

What does contributing to society have to do with the right to live?

 

[hpkeeper]

that's what I mean... why is it so wrong for us keep a human alive that has had no purpose in it's life other than to take up air. Some dogs and some horses have had more purpose in society than that person....

 

[Dave]

Yes: we are our brother's keeper ... remember?

The questions you put forth are exactly those that were posed by the National Socialists in Germany in the late 1920's/early 1930's. Their answer was to "liquidate" the "mental defectives". They were viewed as parasites. You might remember these folks ... they are better known these days as "Nazis".

The liquidation of these people began far before Germany went to war with the rest of Europe. One might assume that once this idea became acceptable when applied to disabled people, it was an easy extension to apply it to Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, intellectuals, or any other groups that opposed the rule of the National Socialists.

The systematic ending of human life for convenience is wrong, no matter how convenient it may seem.

 

[hpkeeper]

what does the right to live have to do with my money?

 

Your still alive aren't you ?

 

[hpkeeper]

no, it's not the problem of defining who is mentally deficient... (I.E.-Jews and other races are not mentally ill) I'm talking about the obvious... the people who can not do their own work and are simply alive because we pay to keep them that way.

 

[hpkeeper]

the same reason a prisoner is kept alive, the only reason that they live is because someone else pays for their food.

 

[Pastore]

<< what does the right to live have to do with my money? >>



the parents of these handicapped should take care of them... therefore, it wouldnt be your money...

 

[hpkeeper]

okay then, but what function do they have to the society? those people who can't provide for them though... they are still kept alive aren't they? people that are poor can give berth to mentally defective babies.... yet they are kept alive.... how is that?

 

[IamDavid]

Having a function in society has nothing to due with life or death..

 

[Pastore]

ANYONE born into this world has a right to live, just as much right as the most sane baby that is out there... i do see what you are saying, but is that couple bucks out of your paycheck everyweek really hurting you that badly?

 

[Dave]

hpkeeper: What purpose do you serve in society? How can anyone judge what a person will eventually be able to contribute? People can change can they not? Medical advances may help the severely disabled. Who are we to foreclose on this possibility?

Also, I think thatyou missed my previous point. Once we start deciding that one group of persons does not deserve to live based on their prospects to &quot;contribute to society&quot;, it may be easy to decide that other groups deserve the same fate.

The engenderment of a &quot;Culture of Death&quot; is dangerous.

 

[Isla]

Mentally ill and mentally disabled are very different things. A mentally ill person could be quite capable intellectually. Mentally ill people hold jobs, raise families, and do everything you and I do. Heck, chronic unhappiness could be considered a mental illness... it's also known as depression.

It seems you are talking about the mentally disabled or handicapped (or differently abled, if that term is prefered.).

Anyway, having worked with mentally disabled children, I feel that there are some intangible things they contribute to their families and to society.

It is very hard to put a value on an experience that teaches you compassion and patience. Sometimes you become a better person when you know and love someone with special needs.

I think the best people to answer this question are the parents of mentally disabled people. I suppose in the end, it is a very personal thing. Some people can handle it, and some people can't. I've heard lots of horror stories... there was that one poor woman who finally snapped and left her child at the hospital because she needed a break from the constant care she had to give him.

I also think that the medical community has to do some rethinking about this subject. There is currently a drug being used to induce pregnancy (can't think of the name off hand) that has some serious dangers involved... there have been serveral deaths and 'birth injuries' due to the routine use of a drug that was never even meant for inducing pregnancies! If I can find the article about it, I'll post the name and what the drug is supposed to be used for. A lot of children are mentally handicapped because of something that went wrong at birth...

In the end, I think every life, no matter what the perceived quality is, should be respected. Even the most severely handicapped children can experience the feelings of being loved and can love back, no matter how simply.

 

[hpkeeper]

right... I hate to bring it up, but our society MIGHT BE more successfull if we went through some generations of some cleansing. You ever do that experiment in high school where you had a series of plants? the perfect plant was tall and green? but yet you got short yellow ones at times, but if the T+G plants where bread with other T+G plants after a while you'd only get T+G plants...? Well... kind of like that, fine don't kill them, just try to cleanse them out of the society... by law or something they couldn't breed, that way after a while our society wouldn't have mentally difficient people... are you better now Iamdavid? that question is for you.

 

[Elledan]

Mentally ill people should be allowed to live, but they should take care of themselves (or their family/friend(s) for them).
We shouldn't invent new laws for them.

 

[hpkeeper]

Dave my function to society right now is a student and I make pizzas as a part time job... there is my function to society... hopefully with time that will develop into something more interesting to me, but that's my contribution to society... it may not be allot but it's there.

 

[IamDavid]

I don't agree they should be put to death but I do think they shouldn't be able to have children..

 

[hpkeeper]

ElleDan doesn't our tax money go to these people through medicare or medicade or something???? I'm not real sure, but some of my money gets to them... doesn't it????

 

[Isla]

hpkeeper

What if you marry and during child birth your wife and child suffer a birth injury?

What if you wife can no longer have children and your only child is mentally handicapped from being deprived of oxygen? Do you have any idea how frequently this does happen? Sure, the medical community takes some financial responsiblity, but over a lifetime, what does the cost ammount to?

You haven't lived long enough to truly see just how easily you could be the one who needs those extra tax dollars, etc.

Just my .02.

 

[hpkeeper]

In light of Isla's post, I agree they should be kept alive... but I still don't think that they should be kept alive by me, unless I produced them. I think they shouldn't allow breeding of people who have a mental disability, it may teach patience but I think that our society would be better off without them... (not that we're in a bad position now).

 

[hpkeeper]

ever hear of those underwater births? they are deprived from air untill they break the surface of the water... if I did it that way I Wouldn't have to worry about the baby being deprived of air.