Genetic Progenies

From — https://www.arilist.com/academy/ArticleView?article_id=23415

The thing about living things is that reproduction for them is a biological imperative. Like take the virus, for example — its main reason for being is to produce another virus and then another and another; until it is just swimming in a sea, an ocean of its copies.

FYI, humans are not viruses. Although we are mammals (and the creationists would probably disagree), we have developed this thing called “culture” and we have (supposedly) this trait called “rational thought” ; so that our actions are governed by them and not by instincts alone. We act after an intelligent discernment of our condition and surroundings — ideally.

So genetic progenies are not necessarily bad, if they are already there. Like, kicking and screaming and demanding for milk or attention. If they are still zygotes … well their right to “live” is probably debatable. I think that the right of a living, breathing, thinking, woman should take precedence over a zygote’s … but that’s just me.

It is terribly insulting and very sexist to ask a woman why she doesn’t have a child; men are never asked that question (thank you Zooey Deschanel for that wonderful idea!).

There may be something racist and classist in perceiving minority women or poor women as irresponsible  sluts for having kids like rabbits. However … I have met some of these women … and they can sound very irresponsible. I lay the blame on their parents though, for not bringing them up well and not giving them a good education. Parents can so fuck up their children’s lives — especially when/if those children become parents themselves. Talk about a cycle of irresponsibility.

There is a whole world of reason why women (hey men are part of this too, or aren’t they?) have or do not have genetic progenies. Sometimes, there may not even be a reason. It (the pregnancy) just happened.

Like a thunderstorm or an earthquake.

I was interviewing a pregnant patient, and I was counseling her on family planning. She tells me that after this child, she does not want another. So I suggest, that she and her husband should decide on a family planning method. I drone on and on about the methods that are available. And this morning, the woman gave birth, and I offered her the family planning method that is currently available in the clinic which is IUD. The woman refused; said that she will just take the pill. I do not believe her. This is her fifth child by husband number 4 and I have this niggling feeling that she keeps having children to have a hold over the men she has relationships with.

I am saying this from the point of view of the child, who was not asked to be born: Hey parents, it is not your right to have kids. If you cannot bring us up in a manner that will not make us a nuisance to society, then do not have us at all. Underpopulation is currently not a world problem. And hey, it should be okay to have sex … I mean what hypocrisy is it that you tell a 15 year old child to preserve her virginity when sex is so much fun that you “accidentally” had me when you were young.

Fuck.

 

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Reading Lists:

http://mic.com/articles/112910/12-women-who-had-the-best-response-to-society-s-biggest-expectation

http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/08/25-famous-women-on-childlessness.html

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/kids

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/03/when-men-want-kids-and-women-arent-so-sure.html

http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/gender-issues/83453-early-pregnancy-philippines?utm_content=buffere26f1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/10-differences-between-middle-class-and-rich-people.html

On Progenies

Babies can get so hysterically cute. And messy. The good thing is, they will not remain so forever.
Drawing from http://www.pencil-portrait-drawing-artist.com

I don’t have anything against reproduction.

The world would benefit if the people who are dying (or who will eventually die, which we all will do, no matter what) would have somebodies to replace them.

Take Japan and Singapore, for example. They are currently encouraging their populace to Make Love and Have Kids.

Granted, making love (a.k.a. having sex) may be regarded separately from “being a parent” — which is what having a child/children is all about. Well, ideally … because let’s face it, some creatures have progenies but fail to become parents.

(I am actually talking about hamsters and sharks and lions who eat their young. But yeah, humans can do that too … if they are so inclined.)

I sometimes wonder what the point of reproduction is.

There have actually been books written on the subject, like Christine Overall’s “Why Have Children” (which I have yet to finish reading) and “The Ethics of Parenthood” by Norvin Richards (which I have yet to read).

Sometimes, I look at the mothers at the clinic with their newborn babies, or at the pregnant girls/women about to give birth; and I wonder: why do you even bother?

I would ask one of them pointblank, why did you get pregnant? And they would also look at me with blank expressions.

Again, at the risk of sounding defensive, I don’t have anything against children. At their best, they can be these wonderful creatures who will someday become adults (if they don’t die).

But sometimes, I look at them, and at the process of bringing them out and raising them, and I just feel tired.