Pro-life vid of day: H.S. quiz lists eugenic abortion as option
by Hans Johnson
This is the first of several “Genetic Science Ethics” questions given to ninth-grade students at Edmond Santa Fe High School in Oklahoma:
“You’ve found out that the child you (or your wife) carries has the gene for dwarfism. A new therapy exists that may repair this gene before the child is born. What do you do?”
A. Allow the child to be born with the gene, and we will accept the child as is.
B. Attempt the new therapy to repair the gene.
C. Terminate Pregnancy.
Though touted as an exercise for discussion, not for grading, parents are nevertheless upset. Do you think this is a proper question for that age? Here was a debate on FNC’s Fox and Friends:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/0TshYzcotJ4[/youtube]
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I think it is good that high school kids are studying bioethics, and it is important that abortion is being discussed there.
Some parents will be angry that their teen-aged children are exposed to the reality of abortion.
Some parents will be angry that their children might be told that abortion is a legal choice that can be good.
Some parents will be angry that their children might be told that abortion is an evil choice which ought not to be legal.
It is typical of the Socratic method that the question is asked in a neutral mode, so that the students can think the matter through. This is a much better teaching than simple indoctrination.
I remember talking about abortion when I was in ninth grade. If the students are ready for basic sex education, then they are ready for basic embryology and also the facts about abortion.
I’m pretty sure that the lady desiring the gag-order is pro-abortion. Anyone else get that vibe?
The only change I think should be made is on the third choice. It should say:
C. Pay an abortionist to kill the child.
If people are upset that this is talked about in Science class, ask it in Health Class.
Grade 9 is not too young to learn about women’s healthcare issues.
Surely anyone who thinks it’s just fine and dandy to wave placards of defenestrated fetuses in front of 3 year olds can’t object to this.
The inclusion of overly emotive terminology isn’t really helpful to the educative processes of matters such as ethics.
Ninth grade.
Around about then, I had learned pretty much all I needed to learn about whether a 4-week-old fetus is a child.
I had learned…
like begets like
(humans give birth to humans, not “blobs of flesh,” or “potential humans”)
there is no spontaneous generation of life, from Pasteur (a blob of flesh does not just spring to life one day)
different animals have different gestation lengths- some go from conception to delivery in less than 4 weeks! (being only 4-weeks old does not define something as not-alive)
Something can be alive even if it is not very many cells! A living thing can even be only one cell! (some critical number of cells does not define life)
tadpoles turn into frogs! (if the early form of the organism does not resemble the later form, it can still be alive!)
caterpillars become butterflies! (same)
maggots become flies! (same)
maggots do not arise out of discarded rags and trash, but are produced by sexual reproduction! Of flies!
And, a bonus question I got right one day! the second law of thermodynamics! A blob of flesh does not rise to a greater level of complexity to become a self-organized, self-sustaining, regenerative system.
If these ninth-graders have learned these details, that use to be staples of education, then they may put the details together and figure out the “pregnancy” is a human being.
after all of that, maybe they will move from “science” to story time, and hear “Horton Hears A Who,” with its message that “a person is a person, no matter how small.”
Or, maybe we would hear “The Velveteen Rabbit,” where a stuffed animal only becomes human when it is wanted.
What brings you to conclude that they don’t know that a fetus is human TLD?
Maybe they’re not as focused on fairy tales as you seem to be. And why the fear of science?
Let’s ask Planned Parenthood what sort of educational material is age-appropriate, according to their programs.
Then let us the mark ethical discussions to that level.
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The thing that bothered me about the news report video:
— The angry woman who thinks that schools should not teach ethics or talk about controversial topics.
— And the school system, who caved to pressure and decided that they should not talk about controversy.
It seems that we have forgotten what education really is — just as we have worked so hard to forget what life and marriage and gender really are.
Education is the work of the present generation, passing on the accumulated wisdom and good of our culture into the hands of the next generation.
So when the concerned citizens insist that we should not discuss sensitive topics, and the schools cave to such pressure, the result is that we are officially refusing to educate our children.
“So when the concerned citizens insist that we should not discuss sensitive topics, and the schools cave to such pressure, the result is that we are officially refusing to educate our children.”
Absolutely!
I would like to ask the parents who insist that “pregnancy termination” is a topic that should only be discussed at home exactly what it is they teach their teens. “Blob of cells” and “product of conception” just won’t cut it anymore.
With the help of ultrasounds and the internet, the students have become the teachers. There is no more hiding the truth from young people.
A student had this to say about the question:
“Another student said reputations can be ruined by talking about their stance on abortion.
“People talk about quizzes and they talk about things in class,” she said. “It would make me feel uncomfortable because I don’t know if I could get hurt by what I say, or not.” “