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I saw a woman on TV years ago who had a deformity of the hands, and she kept having children, who all inherited the problem, and she was proud of herself. That was bad enough. This is another dimension. Actually sadism. Sadistic childbearing.

When Sonny Mehta became head of Knopf, the first book he published was Geek Love, a novel about a woman who takes all sorts of drugs with side effects when she's pregnant, purposely, so that she can have deformed children, who she thinks are special. One has a tail, etc. Now life imitates "art." I don't know whether to cry or smash something.

About 20 years ago there was a female televison newscaster in the Los Angeles market. I think her name was Christine Lund. I believe the newscaster was married to the national sports reporter Jim Lampley. This gal had a congenital deformity of her fingers. I recall that there was a 50% chance that any of her offspring would also have the disease, and the others would carry the gene.

This is all from distant memory. The point is, this couple knew there was a chance that their children would be deformed. I am pretty sure some were. It is a similar plight that many parents find themselves in when the give birth to a handicapped child, to find out there is a genetic problem in one or both parents - do we have more children? My wife teaches special education children and deals with this issue frequently. It is gut-wrenching for the parents, and some of them do go on to have normal, and sometimes, abnormal children. Others make the decision to not have more children.

I do not sit in judgement of any of these parents. However, when people purposely procreate a disabled child, I find that barbaric.

I saw a woman on TV years ago who had a deformity of the hands, and she kept having children, who all inherited the problem, and she was proud of herself

That's a bit different.... the woman didn't choose her disability, and nobody has the right to tell her and her husband not to reproduce (as long as it's not at taxpayer's expense.) I'm sure, however, that she'd be glad to be rid of her disability if she could, that she hoped and prayed that it would NOT be passed on... and she didn't go out looking for a sperm donor with the same defect to reinforce her "identity"!!!

Besides, if you look carefully, nearly all of us have some innate weakness or defect, somewhere. To avoid reproduction based on such factors, would wipe out our fallen race completely.

But there's something different, and profoundly sick, about deliberately creating a disability. Why make things worse than they need to be?