Monday, October 18, 2010

un-Natural Selection?

Good morning God,
I've just been learning about the charity Project Prevention and their plan to offer money to drug addicts and alcoholics if they will agree to sterilisation (referred to as long term birth control).

I appreciate the concern for the children.
No... that's an understatement.
I am appalled at the damage that can be done to children born to parents suffering from alcohol or drug addiction. I know from first hand experience how life-shattering and soul destroying it can be for the child AND the parent.
BUT
To knowingly offer one more binge or fix in return for a life-time of sterility?
How sick and manipulative is that?

It's called Eugenics.. the deliberate attempt to manipulate the gene pool of society - human intervention in the whole process of natural selection. We've done it before,  in America in some states there were programs to sterilize those with mental illness, Indirah Gandhi tried mass sterilization in India, In Czechoslovakia Roma women were forcibly sterilized..
Forced Sterilization is recognised as a crime against humanity - but coerced sterilization?
Can you coerce someone who lacks the emotional and mental capacity to fully understand what they are signing up to - or is that just abuse?

If Project Prevention was really concerned for what happens to the Children of addicts, it would spend its money on providing care for them - not making sure that they dont exist!
I think this is just a very nasty way of dealing with what we dont want to face.  It allows us to ignore the plight of the addicts because we wont have to worry that their children will be a drain on our emotions or finances or the social services of the state.  It is easier to make sure that children aren't born, than care for them when they are, after all, what sort of life will they have? A life worth living?

Who knows - except you God. and of course, the children of alcoholic and drug addicts
I wonder how many of them seriously wish they had never been born..

The problem is NOT the child - but the parent and the society that fails to address the problems of addiction. The best way of resolving the 'problem' of these children is to fix society, not  manipulate the gene pool. We need to invest in putting an end to the sort of suffering, social deprivation and injustices which almost inevitably leads to addiction in the first place.

It highlights the real difference between a secular and a Christian society. YOU cared enough to come as one of the least of us - a back-street bastard not a middle-class do-gooder. You cared enough to find a way to work with natural selection, to change behaviour, to transform society, to save the lost, not to destroy us or 'prevent' us from even being born. You take the risk with free will, and, even though you do know better, you believe in our future, in the possibility of our redemption, enough to work with us...

Its important that we see this 'project' for what it is - Project prevention is just a nasty ungodly way of stopping the problem of OUR pain, distress and discomfort at the lives that are damaged by abuse..
It does nothing for the addict to rehabilitate them, for society to make it better, and even less for the Children who might have been.
Its certainly not Christian
Its a cop out.

4 comments:

  1. Interestingly the secular world is the greatest critic of this. Project Prevention's board of directors contains several Christian clergy. As an atheist I am fighting Project Prevention effectively in UK using secular ethics and legislation. Check my blog for updates but to date we have caused PPUK's directorship to back down, I'm told the original UK donor has withdrawn too and there are workers across UK ready to start legal proceedings.

    I applaud your position but please don't assume that this is a secular initiative because that's not the case.

    You can get details here:

    www.stuartsorensen@wordpress.com

    cheers,

    Stuart

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  2. In case you'd like to explore this a bit more I just did an interview with The Guardian's "Strange Quarks" podcast opposing Project Prevention. I can't post the link here but if you google Strange Quarks it's episode 2 of the podcast series. Or you can link to it from my blog:

    www.stuartsorensen.wordpress.com

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  3. We kicked them back over the Atlantic. No UK directors AND they backed down over sterilisation too.

    Good isn't it?

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