It was your comments on materialism that confused me ... they didn't quite jibe with your admirable take on your kids.
I was thinking today that any trial attorney worth his salt should take a page from the "non-judgmental latest data" with which our government and their interlock of Experts and Consultants and Advocacy Groups inundates us.
Any parents claiming pain and suffering for the death of their unborn child and able to put a price on that should be confronted with the real economic liability -- much less Pain and Suffering -- that each child poses.
There's no guarantee whatsoever a child's going to repay his parents' economic investment in him. Even a cursory glance at the child support figures for which men with no Choice are tracked like dogs and imprisoned, even, suggests that monetary damages for the loss of a child are ludicrous at best.
Your comments are sincere and you have raised my interest. Why do you say you are not a materialist?
Is this a religious conviction, or a philosophical one? I would like to know, because many Christians, for example, believe their religion and materialism are in conflict.
C.S. Lewis said a very wise thing. "God loves matter, else He would not have made so much of it."
I have more to say on this subject, but until I know what your position is, there is not much point. Matter is not an evil thing. There is no possible virtue that can be realized except by material people acting in a material world with material things.
Enough! I really would like to know why you seem to despise matter. (I use despise in the sense of "regard as having no value".)
Hank