Diamond, Eugene F.

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 52 | Number 2 Article 4May 1985Every Child Should Be Born Wanted' - A DubiousGoalEugene F. DiamondFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationDiamond, Eugene F. (1985) "Every Child Should Be Born Wanted' - A Dubious Goal," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 52 : No. 2 , Article 4.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol52/iss2/4love of God. "Love has no room for fear; rather, perfect love c all fear. And since fear has to do with punishment, love is perfect in one who is afraid" (1 John 4:18) . Hospital ethics committees are formed to help resolve the r problems brought about by modern medical technologies. s( that these committees may reduce the number of litigation physicians and the hospital (American Society of Law and ! meeting held in Houston, Texas, February, 1984). Catholic p should not hesitate to serve on these committees. They co constant reminder to the committee members that the reason for its existence is for the patient and to focus on t h• facts before considering the social and economic factors. physicians know that our patients are created by God and cs out >t yet n plex te feel ,gainst Jicine, sicians :1 be a incipal nedical atholic refore , have our respect. We are His instruments and whatever we l ;sess in medicine is God's gift to us; how we use it is our gift to God . To be influential in our environment, we must be kno"' dgeable and educate ourselves by reading, dialoguing with our col .gues or attending worthwhile meetings. To assist the physicians, nur ;, hospi· tal personnel, priests, religious , the laity, the National Fe . at ion of Catholic Physicians' Guilds have sponsored meetings of medical· moral nature in various cities. This year, the 54th annual m ting will be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel in Honolulu , awaii on Oct. 31 , Nov. 1 and 2. The sessions will include: 1) In Vit r. Fertiliza· tion 2) Death and Dying 3) Organ Transplantation and 4 ) hysician, Heal Thyself. On Nov. 3, 1985, an optional tour to · :1laupapa, Molokai is being planned. This is where Father Damien ar d Mother Marianne labored among the lepers. God gave the Catholic physician the gift of helping tf-., sick and helpless. Most of us were given the fringe benefits of a gooc: and above average comfortable life style. We can go about our daily •1fe like the servant who buried his master 's coin in the ground and ga\ e back the one coin on his return, or we can reach out to spread c t.-: r Master's teaching, thereby influencing our medical environmen t with the "respect for life" ethic. Let all of our strivings be " direc ted towards enriching ourselves with merits so that we do not reach our final destination with nothing or with very little in our hands. Earn all we can . Let's not waste eit her time or energy or the qualit ies and gifts God has given us" (Rev. James Alberione, S.S.R., S.T.D.) . Hope to see you in Hawaii. Aloha and God bless you. 104 Sincerely yours, in Christ, Herbert M. Nakata, M.D. Linacre QuarterlY 'Every Child Should Be Born Wanted' -A Dubious Goal Eugene F. Diamond, M.D. Doctor Diamond, a pediatrician at the L,oyola University Stritch School of Medicine, and a past president of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds, is a frequent contributor to Linacre and a dedicated member of its editorial advisory board. One of the stated goals of the American Academy of Pediatrics is that "every child should be born wanted. " 1 Tosay the least , this is an ~nclear pronouncement. Doesn 't a child have a right to be wanted Independent of whether he is want ed or not? Should not the objective value of the child be the controlling factor, rather than the subjective wants of those who are responsible for him? Implicit in the context of the official statement is the notion that if we reduce the numbers of ~hildren born, we will increase the per~entage of those who will be wanted." Since the Academy is an organizat ion devoted t o the care of chil-~en, it would seem more appropriate for it to establish a goal of Increasing the societal capacity for caring for children so that those :h~ have t~em will want them . The Academy recommends that the P~IOns available to the pregnant woman carrying an " unwanted" ~Ild s~ould include adoption, abortion , and carrying the baby to ~m. S~ce abortion is listed as a co-equal option with others, it may " surmtsed that the Academy accepts the notion that the goal of every child wanted" is served , ·at least in part, by aborting some Unborn children in order that the survivors should be more wanted Wil:t is a totally unproven premise which alleges that some children th· lead storybook lives because others were not born. A critique of at!S statement by the Academy should include the following consider-Ions: U 1) The availability of abortion has not decreased the numbers of nwant d · · of F ~ btrths.2 A comparison between the 1983 National Survey no ~rn_il~ Growth and the 1976 Survey of Family Growt h discloses th Signtftcant change in the numbers of unwanted births during the ab~e~· Years following the 197 3 Supreme Court decision legalizing r Ion on request. Will.2) The expectation that the termination of an unwanted pregnancy me :event the birth of an unwant ed child is derivative of a funda-chiJ~ fallacy. This is the failure to distinguish between an unwanted and an unwanted pregnancy- a very critical distinction. A sig-May, 1985 105 • I ' - . ' I o .. • I I nificant percentage of women reject their pregnancy in thf 'irst 12 weeks out of considerations which are largely personal. The' nay be rejecting the fact that they throw up every morning, that losing their figure, that they are losing some freedoms. 3 T 1ey are ~y may to the have a serious social, financial, or medical problem relat pregnancy itself. Later on, after quickening particularly , 1ey are likely to accept the pregnancy, especially when they are g ·n assis· tance in solving socio-economic crises related to the pn •ancy. 4 Whether or not they reject the pregnancy, their accepta1 of the child who results from the pregnancy is not foreclosed. Evr women who apply for an abortion and are turned d~wn ~under th~ .:andina· vian System) are likely to go on to have theu . chlld~en ana e happy with them .5 A large percentage of pregnancies will be t lanned, · under circumstances allowing for the maximum knowledge )OUt and , availability of birth control methods .6 The 1976 Nationa1 urvey of Family Growth concluded that the number of b~rths wh_ 1 became wanted after conception "is evidence that an unmtende regnancy does not necessarily mean an unwanted child." . · . · the 3) One factor which must be considered more sem ~ Iy IS I extent to which teenage pregnancy is really intended. Th •regn_ancy, though intended, may become unwanted after it begins, i! . fulfills Jts purpose (confirming fertility, emancipation from parent 1:- :o_ntrol) or if it fails to fulfill its purpose (e.~., bo_Yf~iend fai~s to pro his loe:d: loyalty by formalizing the relatwnship m marnage or E ne ps . contract). Unless help is offered for the crisis pregnancy • alternatJbv: . d · ·ll ·quentlY to abortion are emphasized, unwante pregn~ncies Wl ' other, aborted Most babies who are born to unmarned women. .n th~ · b b1es are hand are desired by their mothers . Very few of the · a to offer~d for adoption. They are seen by their mothers a ;omeo?e t f lonehness. love or someone to offer love and to compensa e -. · heir Unwed mothers are characteristically .alienated and isola · d from ~·tie· parents. Motherhood gives them a change in status and · '•ates en 1 hO • . p · h eal . t hose W ment to income and serVIces. regnancy as app ' j der t ·t· . groan un despise education, see few employment oppor um 1es a r• out 'al t . ·ng , -egnancY parental surveillance. The soc1 s Igma accompany• t' ded of wedlock has mark~dly diminished f?~ mother, c.hil ~nd e;;~ilitY family in modern society. Teenage fertlhty has not men '-'sed. but in was much higher in the 15-19 age group in 1957 than 1'1 1 9B~, ease ' that era most teenage mothers were married. With the current mcrmar· in the numbers and percentages of teenage mothers who are un ried the notion of a national crisis emerges. · 'ly con· 4) The goals of the Academy of Pediatrics are not necessart d offi· gruent with those of the social engineers. Various voluntarY an to do · t t · which have · I cial agencies and foundatwns may propose s _ra eg1es ' oups ~ with demographic considerations. The true mterest of such gr ther in not necessarily the happiness of a person already here, but ra 106 arterlY Linacre Qu the control of population for the sake of a blueprinted future. Those elements of planning, engineering and control, which deal primarily with numerical values, are more appropriate for the blueprinted future of an animal colony than a human society. The American Academy of Pediatrics could appropriately lend balance to such planning by stress-ing the value of the child in contrast to the negative emphasis attached · to children as polluters, occupiers of space and consumers of limited resources. 5) There is an unfortunate t~ndency to link the problem of child abuse with the "unwanted child." There is currently no convincing data to indicate that " unwanted" children are more likely to be abused. In one study of 2,000 victims of child abuse, it was noted that 56% were the result of planned pregnancies .? The abused child fre-quently is the child who was planned for unrealistic reasons. The child is anticipated as someone who will give love and compensate for lone-liness. When he or she presents, by contrac;t, as one who makes demands and requires attention and input, he or she may be punished for failure to fulfill parental expectation. The facile linkage of preg-~cy planning and subsequent child abuse is a product of conven-tional wisdom and not of epidemiological data. 6) The term "unwanted," if used appropriately, should mean that ~he child in question is unwanted, not just by its biological parents, t'ut by everybody. The discrepancy between the number of prospec-~ adoptiv~ parents and the number of available adoptable infants 1 been estimated between 800,000 and l,OOO,OOO.B It is true of at ~~st the class of healthy Caucasian children that it is virtually impos-~ le .for such a child to be born unwanted by everybody. The exis-tce of a demand adoptive market has demonstrated the practicality ·o educating the public to the acceptability of cross-cultural adoptions or the adoption of older or handicapped children. d7) The goal of every child wanted is a reasonable goal if clarified : bl'extended to avoid ambiguity. The failure to clarify an official d u Ic statement of goals has caused widespread misunderstanding and p=ag~ to the public perception of the American Academy of . Iatncs' philosophy. ·REFERENCES ~- ~ta~ement of Goals, America n Academy of Pediatrics, 1978 liu~a ~lonal Survey of Family Growth Advance Data, Dept. of Health and 3 : ences, Jan. 2, 1980. 4' ~-m' M., Brztish Medical Journal, 2 :1 45, 1963 5. Hlamond E. and Diamond, R ., Illinozs Medzca/ J o urnal, 136 :220 , 1972 · oerck K 6. Pohl • ., Acta Psychwt. Scandmav 29 ·168, 1963 7 Le man , E, Eugemcs Quarterly, 14 142, 1967. · nosk· E 8 K 1• ., Chzld and Family Quarterly, 7 ·12, 1968. • . ennedy E I . p d p "-ITieric (C . • ., persona commumcatwn , rospectwe an A d optwe are nts of 0 h1cago) . May, 1985 107 . . ' . ·, 

Every Child Should Be Born Wanted\u27 - A Dubious Goal

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Every Child Should Be Born Wanted\u27 - A Dubious Goal

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