Ethical issues and pregnancy

[Guest guest]

I'm experiencing some disturbing ethical issues regarding those mothers

who allow their (low-functioning) autistic daughters to become pregnant

and birth a child.

As I'm reading your posts, these autistic daughters seem barely capable

of feeding themselves and maintaining a relationship, let alone capable

of independent living. By their own mothers' admission, they are young

children -- except in their ability to become pregnant.

These severely autistic daughters would not seem to have the capacity to

consent to sexual activity with anyone. They do not understand the

ramifications of such a decision, nor do they have the emotional

maturity to deal with the consequences of their actions.

As I'm reading your posts, these daughters do not understand the concept

of prenatal and ob/gyn care, and may find both these and the birth

process to be traumatic beyond measure. To add insult to injury, these

severely autistic women are incapable of caring for a newborn and

providing for even its most basic needs.

Now, I do understand that many people have moral issues about

terminating a pregnancy, so I won't go there. But what about recognizing

the realities here, and at a minimum expect that caregivers maintain

their autistic female dependents on some method of birth control? And

perhaps monitor their autistic daughter's social life so as to prevent

them from being taken advantage of sexually or making decisions that

they are not equipped to make? If you do not protect them, who will?

I honestly do not believe that everyone is entitled to have a child (or

grandchild) simply because the technology exists for them to do so. What

about the welfare of the child? What about the burden on caregivers to

whom the responsibility of raising that child may fall? What about the

additional costs to the taxpayers in terms of the resources that mother

and child will require?

To be clear, I'm not referring to those with Asperger's Syndrome, but

those women who suffer from a more classic form of autism, one which

essentially keeps them children forever.

In case you think that I'm trying to limit the rights of autistics, I

feel very much the same about those neurotypical women who insist on

becoming pregnant at an age where their eggs are barely viable, thereby

placing their unborn children at risk for severe birth defects. Or, at

the very least, subjecting that child to graduating from high school all

alone, because they are now far too elderly to make the trip. To me,

that is the epitome of selfishness.

Then there is the spina bifida issue. Ladies, if you are of childbearing

age and have the capacity to become pregnant, please take a multivitamin

containing folic acid so as not to place your unborn child (unplanned or

not) at risk for spina bifida. No excuses please -- in the vast majority

of cases, neural tube defects are totally preventable.

Off my soapbox for now. I am just so upset that a mother would allow her

dependent autistic daughter to become pregnant, when that daughter may

be barely able to distinguish between a newborn human child and a " Betsy

Wetsy " doll.

Best,

~CJ