On Sunday, Tom took the kids to Mass, we've been splitting up Mass due to the whole germ/RSV
thing for Simeon. While they were gone, I watched this show on the Discovery Health channel.
It was called
8 Boys Wanting a Girl. It was about 4 different women who had boy children, but desperately wanted girls, or at least one girl. One of the women, and only one of the women, was actually OK with whatever happens, naturally, she was around 40 something and had 8 boys, but had a yearning for a girl. She was not one of the desperate ones. The other ones, tried several In-Vitro treatments to try to select the girls out of the "dish". They showed one woman, who had done In-Vitro 3 times and this was to be her last time, as they'd spent over $20,000 already. I couldn't help but think about all the "girls" waiting to be adopted in China and how that money could have gone towards the adoption of a girl that they could have by now.
The doctor walked in the room where she was waiting and told of the good news that 6 out of the 8 "embryos" lived (babies, each with a soul) and one of them was a "girl"! The woman was so excited and happy. Then, the doctor said, and I felt my stomach cringe,
"Shall I discard all the rest?"
to which she responded, in her happy and joyful voice,
"Yep"
I couldn't believe they said this on TV. He just asked if he should murder all the boy babies they created in a dish.
They are not potential babies. They are babies. They have souls at the moment of conception, whether that is in a dish or done the way God intended.
This is wrong on so many levels.
I can't get "the rest" off my mind and heart.
Her baby "girl" did not live, she miscarried.
One of the women stated that she doesn't know why we can't just select hair and eye color of our babies, like she just can't believe we can't do that yet.
Another woman, who had 4 boys already, was pregnant again and going in for her ultrasound to find out the sex. Upon finding out that the baby was another boy, she broke down, along with her husband and cried and cried. She kept trying to tell herself it was ok, that it would be fine, but kept tearing up.
This baby was healthy!!! His only fault was that he was a boy!!!
I couldn't help but think of my ultrasound and the finding out that my baby had something wrong with him.
And all the other women out there who find out there is something wrong with their babies, yet they still love their babies and want them and are thankful for this gift of life. I also know that after having 4 girls in a row, yes, that feeling of "I'm tired of Pink, Blue would be nice" is there. But I'm also OK with Pink. If Pink is what God has in His plan for our lives, then, well, we accept it.
SO, we, in our world today, can create life in a dish, and we, can, if we don't like it, kill it.
I guess it's not so different than allowing God to create life in our wombs, if we don't like it, we can kill it.
It's a sad, sad world we live in.
Now, I know people who have used In-Vitro and other means of achieving pregnancy. I also know the
desperate feeling of wanting a baby so badly, you can feel it in your very being, in your soul. (we had infertility for the first almost 3 years of our marriage) I'm not judging anyone, but we, as Catholics, believe it's wrong. And yes, although, the end result is a beautiful child, that does not justify the means of achieving that child. God allows it, but how will we (a society who "discards all the rest") pay for this?
As my priest says,
A child is a gift, not a right
In my own desperation of wanting a child, it was only when I, finally, after begging God for what I thought I deserved and wanted so badly, knelt down and asked Him to help me carry the cross of being childless if it is what He so desires for my life. Acceptance of God's will for our lives is not always what we imagine it to be,
it's not always our "dream". It is then, when we need to ask for His help in accepting His will.
It was very soon after this, that I received that
womb blessing from our newly ordained priest, and have
since conceived 7 babies. (so, easy for me to say, huh?)
Why not In-Vitro? (click on it)
What the Church teaches (Click on it)
I probably went way off on things I shouldn't have, but I just can't stop thinking about "the rest" and
had to stand up for them.
