Should the mother's wish be supported by society (the doctors that she
needs to help her)?
I think the problem disappears if we imagine this situation in a tribal
society, where other people who are directly affected by the decision are
involved. There would be a lot of discussion about who would help take care
of the child if it was blind, and if the group had enough money to pay for
the child if it had problems (since she already has two). Because everyone
has to live together, they would talk and talk until they came to a
compromise. This is a social issue and has to be considered by all the
interested parties, which is not the case in modern industrial society.
If we look at the situation occurring in a tribal society, the answer is:
since the mother needs society to help her have the baby, society should
make the decision WITH her.
I think we have to realize that our perceptual valuing evolved in tribal
society. If we had evolved to fit modern society, we would be dealing with
every question intellectually using philosophy and ignoring social
relationships!
Here, we are trying to use an Intellectual pattern (the MOQ) to solve a
Social problem. I think philosophy was developed to solve social problems
precisely when societies became too big for individuals to solve social
problems face to face. From a pragmatic point of view, I think philosophy
should be seen as a tool to compensate for this expansion of society. But
sometimes it doesn't produce justice, as you have said. This is the problem
I stated earlier, that MOQ is excellent as a DESCRIPTIVE system but limited
as a PRESCRIPTIVE system.
But to return to your original question: I don't see the MOQ providing
PRESCRIPTIVE guidance. Personally, I would try to find out if the mother
was a good mother, financially secure and was able to raise the child to
take care of itself (ironically, the requirement for modern industrial
life--this might not be a requirement in tribal society). Her Social
Quality--low or high-- would determine if I would allow her to have the baby.
Sincerely,
Danila
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Marc Brookhuis" <brookhuis1@zonnet.nl>
>To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
>Sent: 12 December 2000 23:15
>Subject: MD clinics and baby's
>
>
> > Clinics and baby's
> >
> > Maybe something interesting for the MOQ, a case about morals, values and
> > ethics.
> > (taken from real live)
> > Maybe the moq-members could help clearing things up
> >
> > The case
> > Picture a fertility clinic and the following case:
> >
> > A lesbian woman, blind, has a girlfriend with whome she's been living
>quite
> > happily for some years. Together they take care for two children, the
> > children were given birth to by her girlfriend.
> >
> > The woman wants to give birth to an (biologically) own child, but her
> > blindness is caused by a hereditary disease which runs through her family.
> > There's a 42% chance that she will give birth to a child who will also
>carry
> > this disease and become blind when he/she is growing up.
> >
> > The doctors of the clinic refuse to help this woman with donor
>insemination
> > because of the high risk of blindness for the child.
> > She is very angry and is sueing the clinic for discrimination of disabled
> > people.
> >
> > Some questions regarding the case:
> > Do the doctors discriminate? And if so, is it moral to do so?
> > What's the moral in this case or simply the best thing to do?
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