The societal double-standard in a recent editorial, “How to `prevent’ abnormal people,” lambasting China’s “repugnant” proposal to rid abnormal fetuses provoked a profound sigh of disbelief. The article immediately sparked a question in my mind: Are we really that different?
I certainly agree that here in the U.S. we do not employ our military to coerce abortions and implant IUDs. It seems to me we do not need such coercion here to carry out our own repugnant practices. We are far beyond the Chinese. We have already acquired the ugly bent for making the choice ourselves, under an increasingly distorted definition of freedom.
Here on the other side of the world, things are upside down. Our society itself is coercive enough in its pursuit of pleasure to foster a mentality which drives a million and a half people a year to consider fetuses abnormal, or at least inconvenient. Let’s get off our moral high horse, please, and work on turning our own mean-spirited society around.
