January 13, 2014

From Jim McGuiggan... Tailor-made babies


Tailor-made babies

Well, everyone knew it was going to happen. Even those who said it wouldn’t. Come on, we knew it would, didn’t we! It began with, let’s give people the choice to end the developing human’s life if he or she doesn’t have a suitably healthy body or mind. It was all for the child’s benefit. Of course it was, yes, certainly it was!
Some idiots said, "Watch, before very long ‘the parents’ will be wanting to choose the colour of the baby’s eyes and to fine tune the baby’s features. They’ll say things like, ‘No, no, we want the cheekbones a bit higher. You know what we mean, something like Carol Vorderman’s. And one thing we simply won’t tolerate is a weak chin. We loathe weak chins—and ears that stick out and...’ "
To which we replied—that is, the wise among us replied—"Don’t be ridiculous! No one would go that far. We’re far too morally and socially sophisticated for that."
We’ve now heard that a committee of scientists and others has advised the government that ‘parents’ should be given the right to choose the baby’s gender. (It’s true that there was furious division in the committee over the recommendations included in the report, but it still made it to the government and is being "given careful consideration.")
‘Parents’ are to be given the veto over the developing human’s life not on grounds of health, not on any grounds that lie in the baby, but because ‘the parents’ don’t want that kind of baby.
"Oh come on darling, let’s have another go. It’s true that we haven’t yet got the little girl we want and have had to dump the last two but maybe third time will be lucky."
"Yes, George, but what if it’s another boy—wouldn’t that be terrible! I don’t know that I could bear it. Three times in a row. You can’t expect me to live with that kind of stress and disappointment. It’s all too much." (She sobs bitterly. Poor thing.)
"Steady, darling, steady. They can do magical things now these medical people. And not only can they do them, they’re eager to please people like us that know exactly what we want and will not settle for anything else. We don’t have to roll the dice any more. They’ll see to it that we get the exact model we want."
"Oh, George, you’re so reassuring," she cooed, "You’ll make a wonderful father for our little pet. You’ll sacrifice everything for her. You’re that kind of man."
"Oh, Cynthia," he cooed back, "I love it that you see those qualities in me. But it’s really you, dear, you bring them out in me."
"I feel better already. Let’s go down and pick through those dresses and shirts and see if we can get something that pleases us. If not we'll get them tailor-made. And on the way home we can stop off at that little shop and get some ice-cream on the way home. Won’t that be fun? They have so many flavours," she said with a sweet giggle, "we're simply spoiled with choices."

No comments:

Post a Comment