The latest in designer pets:

[theweaselking]

getting a little Trig of your very own!

Seriously. Does anyone else look at the parents here and see the same attitude that yuppies have towards teacup poodles?

Comments

[flemco.livejournal.com]

Oh hells yes.

I can't wait to see paris Hilton with a Down's Syndrome Baby peeking out of her purse.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

*LOLs at the mental image*

Sad part is that's not far-fetched.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

[hypatiasghost.livejournal.com]

Well... I have to say, no. This isn't a "oh my gosh look at how cute my Downs syndrome baby is" kind of thing. There are deep rivers of love and acceptance being expressed by the parents in this story for their children. I don't think that any of them adopted the Down's syndrome children they did as a collect-the-set thing, even though the story opens with this idea that the first family mentioned adopted three more kids with Down's syndrome so that their birth child wouldn't be "left alone." I think the parents are, rather, realizing that they are uniquely capable of loving and caring for kids who are mostly unwanted by the majority of people looking to adopt.

You often hear people say things like "Oh, Down's kids are so loving and kind, they're so much fun, they're such beautiful souls." And that's often really true; certainly the couple of kids with Down's that I have known have been really wonderful to be around. But they also often have lots of health issues, emotional problems, and they're always going to be more or less dependent on their parents, though often a good level of independence can be achieved. Adopting a kid with Down's syndrome is not something that you can do lightly; the adoption agencies won't let you and your own emotional resources won't permit it. So no, I don't see the same attitude that yuppies have towards teacup poodles here. I see, rather, an interesting perspective on what it means to be human and what it means to be compassionate.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

I'm at a loss as to why you chose to twist a family reaching out to provide homes for parentless children with Down's into a designer pets gag.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It's not a "gag", it's the impression I get about how the fundamentalists have decided that since their child will always be dependent on them, they should get more so he won't be lonely.

It's *creepy*.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Plenty of people have more than one child so their kids won't be lonely. How is it worse to specifically adopt a special needs child (that has little chance of being adopted by most people)? If you have the money and the time to take care of these kids, I say collect 'em all! Way better than subjecting them to group homes and being wards of the state.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

They willingly took on children who would otherwise be trapped in the foster system until adulthood and then let loose into the world. What they're doing is amazing and hard, not creepy.

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

It's not what they did. It's why they did it. They're not getting these kids to have kids, they're getting kids to have more downsy kids for their own downsy kid to play with, and getting three at once. They're looking at the kids as pets at best, and as toys at worst. It's gonna turn out a lot harder than they think it will, probably, but that doesn't make it not creepy as hell.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jeremiad/]

As someone mentioned up above, getting more kids for your own kids to play with is actually a reason why people bear more children or adopt more children.

I don't see how this is substantively different. Harder yes, but the motivations behind the decision aren't different.

[chrisrw109.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think that whenever there is a story about people who are even vaguely religious you completely lose any sense of perspective.

This is not dissimilar to how, if the people in the story happened to be gay certain people who put a slant on the story that they're doing this so that they can have kids to abuse who can't tell anybody.

Both methods paint things in a really dark way.

What these folks are doing isn't so dissimilar to parents who adopt second children of a minority so that their previously adopted child won't feel like the lone non-caucasian face.

The Adoption system is *hell* for special needs kids. More so than it is for normal kids. What these people are doing is laudable.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jeremiad/]

Nope. Don't see it.