One-eyed baby in Chennai, India: update (link to "graphic" photos)

Boing Boing ^ | Aug, 10, 2006 | Scott Carney

[Wolfstar]

All of you who are waxing poetic about this tragic baby's next life, can you tell me one thing? What about the here and now? Most religions teach that we are not predestined and we have free will. Seems to me this poor little one is predestined all right. As for free will, where is the option for this baby to exercise any at all, even if she survives beyond infancy?

Look at her lying there on a flat table. She appears to be out in a hall somewhere, and the photo appears to have been taken surrepticiously, so you know that's routine care for the baby. She has no protection from falling off the table. No kindly nurse is watching over her. No mom. No dad. No love. I look at this and all I see is monstrous cruelty, not just by human beings who probably recoil from the baby, but by a God I all-too-often just do not understand.

I want to have faith in God. I want God to love me. But there are times I simply cannot look past the horrors of this world.

[annelizly]

That poor, sweet, darling little angel baby!! I pray that someone touches her and speaks to her with love before she passes.

[dandelion]

Would I have given birth? Of course - this child is a child - not a "choice" to be made. How long she lives is not the main thing; if she is loved, then she will have achieved more in her short life than many "normal" people will have ever achieved in a long and "successful" life.

If this child is loved, then she is blessed - regardless of what the world may believe. After all, how many persons have lived miserable lives, who had everything but love - and would have given everything to have love?

[paulat]

The most disturbing picture was showing her lying all alone with no one to hold her.

[paulat]

We were thinking the same things.

[MHGinTN]

Amen! I cannot fathom the act of 'setting a helpless baby aside'. A loving touch is so very easy to give and has such power in the spirit dimension ... to purposely withhold it is horrific.

[cricket]

Survival is the concern right now, I would think. She needs to be loved and held

Survival aside. . .she deserves to be loved and held; no matter the outcome.

[paulat]

So do I. Or if her parents can't handle it, I pray she finds another loving family who will help her live her life to the fullest extent possible. Who knows what might happen? She is already surprising people.

This is a culture that routinely aborts NORMAL girl babies. That shot of her lying all alone tells it all.

[CindyDawg]

Looking at the pictures that seems to be the "hospital". As sad as it is, this baby has a purpose. Why not join us in prayer, that someone provides the nuturing care that we all agree that she needs?

[CindyDawg]

Agreed

[caseinpoint]

None of us can claim to understand God. He is incomprehensible. Yet He is also perfect love and perfect justice. The mortal condition of this child is not her destiny. Perfect justice is not something that can or will occur in this life. It simply isn't possible without overriding free will and that defeats the purpose of our mortality, which is to prove that we can be obedient and faithful to God.

It so happens that my faith believes we didn't just poof into existence at birth. I believe we existed in heaven before birth, as children of our Father in Heaven, and that in many cases we had a large part in determining the circumstances of our mortal lives--not in the sense of Karma or reincarnation or anything, but in the sense of volunteering to fulfill a mission along with gaining our mortal bodies. Thus, some of us live a long time, some only a moment, some in luxury, some in destitution. Each of us is only expected to "fulfill the measure of our creation" (which is different for each person) and return to our Father. Some, I believe, were so faithful and valiant in Heaven that they need only come to earth to gain a body and then they can depart back home to Heaven. And even some of those choose to stay here longer to help the rest of us learn compassion and empathy. In other words, the valiant souls are serving us and helping us to be more Christ-like. On the other hand, if we neglect these souls, we are accountable to God eventually unless we first repent.

Because I see this mortal life as a continuum or the second act in a three-act play, so to speak, I don't put that much stock in the second act alone. Just as a play doesn't stand by its second act alone either, neither does God's love and justice stand or fall by the second act alone.

Don't let the unfair things of this world keep you from feeling the Lord's love in your life. I get discouraged at the evil and unfairness in life also but I can also remember that as Isaiah says, our ways are not the Lord's ways, and our thoughts are not the Lord's thoughts. We can't hope to understand the Lord's ways because our understanding is so childlike compared to his. When I took my children to the doctor for their immunizations, it was difficult for me to let the doctor hurt them without being able to communicate adequately why they were being hurt. I could only hope my babies still believed I loved them more than anything and there must be some reason why Mommy let the doctor stick needles in them. I think the same thing applies to some extent to us and the Lord's ways. We are not capable of seeing the long-term visions of the Lord and knowing His purposes. That understanding brings me peace. I hope it can help you in your journey.

[Wiggins]

Must be me, but I don't anything with one eye in the picture. Is there another link?

[Lovergirl]

She's beautiful.

[caseinpoint]

I believe it does. It is true that the change would affect every single cell of the body, but then, every single cell changes anyway in the resurrection in order for it to be freed from mortality. If you are speaking of the special personality of the Down Syndrome children, it is closer to God in terms of love than most other people. While others can reason better, few can match the Down Syndrome people in unconditional love. Thus, will they become more like us, or we become more like them in the Resurrection? Or will we all change drastically physically while retaining the traits and personalities that make us individuals? I can't answer that question but I do believe we will have perfect, immortal bodies in the hereafter and what that is, is another unaswerable. Given the choice, I'd take somebody else's body, nose, hair and eyes but I doubt that's what it means. I think perfect means in function but not necessarily appearance.

(However, a question which "haunts" me is how will I recognize those celebrities who are resurrected without the "enhancements" now so popular. Will we even know Cher, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Joan Rivers or all those others who spend a lot of time under the knife?) ;o)

[Wolfstar]

We were thinking the same things.

Thank you, paulat. When it comes to subjects like this on FR, I often feel quite alone.

[caseinpoint]

Maybe. We have only a snapshot in a hallway. For all we know, there was a guardian within a few feet of her. I suspect the photographer had to slip in there while no one was looking to take the photos. I know I wouldn't take kindly to a stranger taking photos of my child. So she may be abandoned there to some extent or maybe not. The very fact that she is still alive attests to a level of care that a lot of hospitals don't even try to give so I would be careful about judging too harshly right now. Now a videotape might be another story.

[Wolfstar]

Why not join us in prayer, that someone provides the nuturing care that we all agree that she needs?

I know you mean well, but why do we have to pray at all that someone exercise human compassion toward that infant? Why does God do that to helpless babies? If He doesn't, you certainly can't chalk such a catastrophic birth defect up to some human's free will.

These kinds of cases raise all sorts of questions about the validity of religious faith, for me at least. As well meaning as you and folks like you may be, all the chirping in the world about prayer can't answer them.

[paulat]

When it comes to subjects like this on FR, I often feel quite alone.

There are more of us who ask "why?" than you know!

Doesn't mean we don't want to look to a God.

...just means we're the kind who ask "why?"

The poor baby alone just breaks my heart...maybe that's "why."