Taken off someone's blog

Who Would Want a Child Like That?

I am told one doctor said to another about a woman wanting to bear and deliver a child with known severe disabilities: "But who would want a child like that anyway?"

Dear Doctor:

Who would want a child "like that"? A person who wants to learn about love. A person who wants to know about self-sacrifice. A person who wants to know more about the value of life, who wants to move beyond the understanding of owning stuff to the understanding of giving and emptying of the self.

Who wants child "like that"? A person who is connected, a person who wants a challenge, a person who wants to face hell and own heaven right here, right now. A person who wants to grow and change and learn to navigate the waters of joy and despair, of choices deep and dark and profound.

Who wants one "like that"? Someone strong who wants to learn about weakness. Someone weak who wants to learn about strength. A person who wants to change the whole world, a person who wants to change one child's world. A person who wants to cry hard and laugh harder. A person who wants to drink deeply from what is sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet.

In short, who wants a child "like that"? A parent wants a child like that...their child...and they want to have every chance to do their job well. They deserve every support medical and social, emotional and financial that it takes to bring "that child's" life to fruition, to bring "that child's" gifts to the world into which "that child", for whatever reason, chose to enter.

Who are you to question the life of a child "like that"?

Dedicated to Barbara Farlow, a woman who wanted to raise her child "like that", but wasn't given the chance...