Poll: Your child is born without a brain. Would you raise it regardless?
- Thread starter lucky_sharm
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Well first off, just to start the thread on a nice and depressing note...
http://www.koaa.com/news/miracle-child-born-without-brain-dies-in-pueblo/
(The baby in that video died this year at age 3 for those of you who don't feel like going to a random link given by a stranger on the internet).
As to your question, I presume the child has already been born for this question. If that is the case, I would go ahead and keep the child. The loving side of me could not kill a child and the cold/calculating side of me would realize that you're not surviving very long without a brain...
EDIT: BTW, since people keep asking about it (and I presume they didn't watch that video if they're asking...):
According to medical science, the child should not be able to hear or see anything (he only has the brain stem, which shouldn't be able to process that stuff). The child is medically, completely brain dead...HOWEVER, Nicholas was responding to people talking to him (not like, talking back but smiling and acting like a new-born). The doctors couldn't explain it but the child isn't just a bag of flesh in this case. I don't know if that will affect people's decision but I figured I would throw it out there. Also, I am taking the videos word for it so I suppose that could just be the reporter "spicing" the story up.
http://www.koaa.com/news/miracle-child-born-without-brain-dies-in-pueblo/
(The baby in that video died this year at age 3 for those of you who don't feel like going to a random link given by a stranger on the internet).
As to your question, I presume the child has already been born for this question. If that is the case, I would go ahead and keep the child. The loving side of me could not kill a child and the cold/calculating side of me would realize that you're not surviving very long without a brain...
EDIT: BTW, since people keep asking about it (and I presume they didn't watch that video if they're asking...):
According to medical science, the child should not be able to hear or see anything (he only has the brain stem, which shouldn't be able to process that stuff). The child is medically, completely brain dead...HOWEVER, Nicholas was responding to people talking to him (not like, talking back but smiling and acting like a new-born). The doctors couldn't explain it but the child isn't just a bag of flesh in this case. I don't know if that will affect people's decision but I figured I would throw it out there. Also, I am taking the videos word for it so I suppose that could just be the reporter "spicing" the story up.
Does the child literally have no brain?
As in no chance of actually being a person, just an expensive drain on funds?
I'm curious, because if the child has no brain, then they really aren't a person, there's nothing there that makes them a person.
So no, I wouldn't keep that child.
As in no chance of actually being a person, just an expensive drain on funds?
I'm curious, because if the child has no brain, then they really aren't a person, there's nothing there that makes them a person.
So no, I wouldn't keep that child.
That's a tough one for me. While I'm not entirely opposed to euthanization I don't know if I'd have it in me to carry out the act myself. For that reason I'd probably raise it.
But I would certainly question whether or not I was doing the right thing. Not a happy scenario either way.
EDIT: Put some more thought into this and I really can't see any happiness coming from keeping the child alive - for anyone. I'd put it down.
But I would certainly question whether or not I was doing the right thing. Not a happy scenario either way.
EDIT: Put some more thought into this and I really can't see any happiness coming from keeping the child alive - for anyone. I'd put it down.
I'm really curious about how that kid lived. Was he basically like someone who's suffered brain damage, so they have no brain function at all and sit there? Because he was moving around and blinking, so I'm really not sure of what the consequences of having no brain would be.
If he was just a body, with no personality or emotions or anything like that, I wouldn't keep him. I don't think I could bring myself to kill an already born baby even if it has no brain, but I wouldn't want to take care of just a physical body.
If he was just a body, with no personality or emotions or anything like that, I wouldn't keep him. I don't think I could bring myself to kill an already born baby even if it has no brain, but I wouldn't want to take care of just a physical body.
Well the brainstem has to be there to control bodily functions like the heart and breathing. Had some neighbor's sister's baby born without a brain. I had to babysit their kids. Sad stuff.Daystar Clarion said:
What would be the point of living if you have none of the defining traits that make us human, where you simply exist and nothing else. I'd have to kill it.
- Mar 31, 2010
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I have to say no, I do think generally children with disabilities can live a worthwhile life but there has to be a line somewhere when there just won't be any quality of life and never being able to think a single conscious thought is well past that line. It may sound harsh but the baby in the video is little more than a human-shaped sausage. Spend the resources on a child who has a mind.
I don't think I could raise I child that has had its brain damaged to a point where it really isn't even alive. If it doesn't think and isn't aware of its surroundings, it's nothing more than a shell of living cells.
I would probably have it put up for adoption, though I think "putting him/her down" (god, that just sounds terrible when I read it) would be best. Nobody should have to live a life of... well, not living, even if they are not aware of the fact that they are not really "living".
Now I feel sad and terrible.
I would probably have it put up for adoption, though I think "putting him/her down" (god, that just sounds terrible when I read it) would be best. Nobody should have to live a life of... well, not living, even if they are not aware of the fact that they are not really "living".
Now I feel sad and terrible.
Its not a miracle the child survived its just an anomaly, the child by all rights was never going to live a normal life or even one that it could comprehend with any degree of what i would think of as life. I would have said to my wife to seriously think about aborting (if there was a way of knowing before hand) if it was born that way and that was the first i knew then i would look after it as best i could, until it passed on (not sure if the doctors would say to withold treatment to ease the passing).
There simply isn't enough of a human there for me to consider it life.
There simply isn't enough of a human there for me to consider it life.
Well I can't imagine the child would live long and even if they did what kind of life would they have. So no id put it down.
Besides if they're truly "born without a brain" they wouldn't live. Their skull would literally be empty. That kid has a stem which is still part of the brain so they still have one (though in the case above id still put the child down).
Besides if they're truly "born without a brain" they wouldn't live. Their skull would literally be empty. That kid has a stem which is still part of the brain so they still have one (though in the case above id still put the child down).
I know someone who had severe brain damage from birth which left her with somewhat bad learning problems that needed to be monitored by Social services as well by the mental heath services and never didn't walk 100% perfectly...She never really had much of a life despite living 40 years.
Killing it would be what i would do
But CommanderL how can you kill it an it
It cant think It has no feelings its just a hollow shell
But CommanderL how can you kill it an it
It cant think It has no feelings its just a hollow shell
I would actually just donate it to a medical facility to find out how it is still alive.
FOR SCIENCE!
FOR SCIENCE!
let it die. it's no way to live, and there literally isnt anything that makes them a person. all it is is a body. no thoughts, no emotions, no memories. no point. sad but true.
same reason i would want to be taken off life support if i were to become brain dead.
same reason i would want to be taken off life support if i were to become brain dead.
Kill it. It has no emotions or personality or anything that makes a human a human. I would even go as far to say that it doesn't even have a soul. The child is just a husk with no chance of something resembling a normal life. What fun is it to be alive when you cannot experience joys and heartaches of life, let alone comprehend it?
If I managed to become pregnant, after all these years, and the doctors told me there was something majorly wrong with my fetus; I'd have it aborted. This is something that was likely discovered in the womb, when the fetus was growing into a baby. Personally, I'd rather it not even come into existence, than have just a few years of suffering. Just because the parent can't let go, doesn't make suffering without any real sentience, a 'life'. Nor do I think it makes the parents 'heroes' (as cruel as that sounds). They've brought something into the world just to see it die. Nothing really makes it a person. It's just a mass. This is a depressing thread,....I'm going to bed.
Edit: Thanks to those for either trying to make me feel better/correct(or just question) my logic in this post. I had quite a bit of rum last night and I made the mistake of checking the Escapist as my last activity of the evening. I generally don't drink and type. I'm not sure how I made the correlation between the child's condition and suffering, since apparently he feels next to nothing and just is. Though with the amount of rum I had I could probably have made a connection between a cow and asphalt if I really tried. I'm not exactly sure why I used the word 'suffering' - guess we'll never know.
Edit: Thanks to those for either trying to make me feel better/correct(or just question) my logic in this post. I had quite a bit of rum last night and I made the mistake of checking the Escapist as my last activity of the evening. I generally don't drink and type. I'm not sure how I made the correlation between the child's condition and suffering, since apparently he feels next to nothing and just is. Though with the amount of rum I had I could probably have made a connection between a cow and asphalt if I really tried. I'm not exactly sure why I used the word 'suffering' - guess we'll never know.
12 medications daily? That's terrible. I can't imagine putting a person through something like that. I feel raelly bad that one of the first things I thought was "I am Bender. Please insert girder."