Font Rants on Many Subjects

Tonight, a story from Florida to ponder. When you can't make choices for yourself, if you have only a limited self-identity; who makes the choices about your life? I'm really uncomfortable anytime deeply personal decisions get made by a judge. What should a pro-choice person think when the woman isn't the one making the choice.

Three questions to ponder:

1. Assuming the woman can't make a decision for herself due to her disability; is it right for her mother to make that decision?
In support of this concept we can consider our families the closest extension of ourselves, and therefore the ones most likely to make a decision in our interests. Consider an alchoholic who needs an intervention; who better than our family to tell us what is right; when we can't make a decision for ourselves. On the otherhand; is our familymembers may have their own interests as they are individuals unto themselves. In fact the famlial bond may bias the decision. And who can hurt us worse than our own family?
2. What are the implications of the woman carrying the child to term? Pregnancy isn'trisk free, in fact 1600 women die every day from childbirth. On the other hand the risk is pretty small in the US, and this woman would probably be under 24x7 medical care. Lets assume the risks to her are greater of being hit by a car, suffering a household trama (e.g. falling in the shower). So it can't be a medical decision. Then again what are the prospects for the child, born motherless; perhaps to be adopted; perhaps not. Of course given the celebrity of the case we will assume probably there will be many offers for an adoption.
3. What about the mother. How do you explain to a 4 year old what is happening to them? How to do explain what you are taking from them; when you take their child away? What if they decide they want to care for the child?

In conclusion we live in a real world; and tough decisions have to be made all the time. Why is it that right wing idiots are fine about making these decisions when it involves getting our hands dirty going to war; or picking who gets to rule a far away country in order to defend our-selves; but they suddenly try to find some moral high ground as soon as the decision involves some poor woman in Florida who's at her wits end about what to do about her helpless daughter who has to deal with being raped, pregnant, and mentally disabled.