If, like me, you woke up on this beautiful Whiny Wednesday morning with nothing much to whine about, this little story ought to fire up a few complaints. (And thanks to Kathleen for sending this to me!)
[Warning: Before you click through, note that this story includes baby pictures]
A couple in Tennessee took out a home equity loan to get the $24,000 needed to undergo IVF–not for their one chance at parenthood, but to pre-select the sex of their fourth child. Oh yes. Already having two boys and a girl, these people thought their daughter would “miss out” if she didn’t have a sister to play with, so they took out a loan and flew to Los Angeles to find a doctor who offered gender selection.
What the fruitcake?!
I guess some people really don’t understand how precious life can be or how fortunate they are just have healthy children, or children at all. I hope that whatever void these people saw in their lives, it’s been filled now. Somehow, though, I think there’s more to this story than just wanting to even up the numbers.
The article does not mention if one embryo just did not implant? I don’t know the statistics on that? Makes me wonder if they did something to have only the one girl? In general I think that science is starting to be moving beyond our ethical decision making at this point.
Here is my whine…
I can relate to wanting a nice meal sans, banshee in the corner…but this article about child free restaurants http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-no-kids-allowed-movement-is-spreading-2516110/
Actual says “Blame a wave of childless adults …”
Like we are to blame and not the poor parenting or desire to be free of chaos for a meal or a vacation…
ugh!
That article is definitely worthy of a whine. Their priorities are interesting. Mortgage their home and use all their savings to have a fourth child, rather than save to provide for the three they have. Sheesh!
I’d go to an adults only Harry Potter screening too. That article annoys me. Parents will never be second-class citizens. What they don’t like is having any of their rights curtailed in order to ensure that everyone (parents and non-parents alike) have a quiet, pleasant, child-free environment. My friends with kids and my sisters relish the opportunity to get out anywhere that is adults only.
I wondered the same thing as Lee. How many girls did they transfer and did more than one implant? How far did they take their selection process for the “perfect” family?
They say that the childless are selfish…really?!
Last night at the bar a woman came over and sat with my friends and me. Not only did she not ask “Can I sit with you guys?”, but she had a screaming two year old with her. We hinted several times that there was an open table but she wouldn’t move so we had to either sit with a screaming two year old, or split up the group that we came with, so we were sort of trapped and tried to ignore her, but it wasn’t easy. What was her justification for inviting herself to sit with us? There was an outlet by our table and her phone needed charged, and “I think I went to high school with you.”. Nevermind that there was also an outlet at the empty table, which we kindly pointed out to her repeatedly, and high school was 7 years ago. My friend who was the guest of honor also pointed out that she had found a sitter for the night for her 2 year old son because it’s her birthday and she wanted to celebrate with a child free evening. So much for that.
Seriously? You didn’t just tell her to move? It’s rude, yes, but so is just plopping yourself at a table full of people you don’t even know.
I’m of two minds about IVF. On one hand there are people who know that there are some seriously nasty genetic illnesses that run through their families, some of which are related to either the X or the Y chromasome. I can understand people who go through IVF in order to ensure that their child is free of a potentially deadly or life-impairing illness, and that they in turn, will not pass it on to another generation. Gender selection for ‘family balancing’, if there are no genetic or health issues, is something else. I’m not in a position to take advantage of IVF any longer (lacking the necessary parts now), but there does seem to be some assumptions being made about what family life should be, as opposed to what is actually ends up like, as far as the parents are concerned. Personally, I loathe my sister – she isn’t even someone I’d choose to spend time with as an acquaintance if we didn’t have the same mother. I think the parents, in this case, may find that their vision of ‘two loving sisters’ becomes more like ‘two girls at each other’s throats every five minutes’ when their daughter’s personalities develop.