No. As I mentioned in a previous response, it’s not “undoing” homosexuality, it’s simply ensuring that your child would develop, normally, into someone attracted to the opposite sex and not his/her own.
It appears to me, from both general observation of the media and what I’ve heard from people on these boards and elsewhere, that being gay presents one with problems that heterosexuals do not encounter. Even to the extent of some bigoted asshole beating them up or killing them. That seems to be quite a downside. If I could save my kid from that—without losing anything—I’d feel obligated to.
But of course you are. “Son, it’s important to my principles that you get to experience being a persecuted minority, though I myself will never be subject to that.”
Sort of a “you go first” brand of skydiving there, and you’re doing it to a CHILD.
Suppose, for a second, that I administer the shot. They grow up heterosexual and alone and very miserable because they cannot find a mate. Had I left things be, on the other hand, they would have grown up and found a mate and had a lot of happiness.
(for these suppositions, it’s part of my child’s character to want a mate, obviously)
I cannot say how likely either scenario is and therefore I would not want to monkey around with it.
This ‘potential unhappiness’ appears to be entirely subjective, that’s why. You seem to think that, on balance, it would lead to more unhappiness than not, and I do not agree with that.
As to having a child, homosexuals can still do that - as to having a mother/father/daughter/whatever relationship, again those are rather subjective. I’m sure there are many people out there who wished not to have that particular dynamic because of one thing or another (say the father was an abusive alcoholic).
In the end, the proposition seems entirely arbitrary to me and it could make me directly responsible for my child’s misery. To me the question is like ‘if you had a shot that would give your child blond hair, would you do it?’. The reason I see it this way is because the ‘shot’ would not be a guarantee of any further success, happiness, etc, than not taking the shot.
Con: the few remaining bigots might have a problem with it.
Also, I have no interest in my genes moving on for generations. If it happens fine, if not, that’s fine too.
I wouldn’t ***do ***anything to make them gay, but I sure wouldn’t be disappointed if they were.
No? What possible reason could there be to do this? It’s not my problem to make sure the human race remains ‘genetically viable’ or some sort of ridiculous fearmongering. I’ll be dead, what do I care?
So, you simply want to be responsible for a potentially negative outcome. That’s understandable. But, once I give you the option, and if your child turns out to be gay, and that makes his life very difficult and h=unhappy, you have to accept the responsibility for that. Right?
But it would remove what, I think most people would acknowledge, is something that could cause him great unhappiness. And it’s not as if “anything may cause him happiness”, it’s a thing that we know to be a great potential source of unhappiness. Or are you of the mind that gay kids are no longer subject to ridicule, bigotry, bullying, etc?
A straight person is going to have about a 10 times larger dating pool than gay person. And given that straight people aren’t exactly complaining of having too many acceptable choices…
So, if nothing else a gay person is going to have a harder time finding an acceptable mate or “settle” more than a straight person would.
Statistically speaking. And I am not saying that issue is enough to warrant the shot or not. Just saying that hasn’t been brought up yet.
You are suggesting that it’s an actual potentially negative outcome - this is your presupposition. I do not share it to the degree you seem to. It seems arbitrary to me. My child’s hair turning gray in his or her twenties could also lead to a potentially negative outcome - yet I wouldn’t adjust those genes either. My child could have moles they do not like, they could have a facial structure that displeases them. Ultimately it’s not up to me to make my child happy with their life - it’s up to them. I can certainly contribute to their unhappiness though. They could want a relationship with me, for instance, and I could turn it away because of some arbitrary trait they possess.
Also, if my child turns out to be gay, it would all depend on why he was miserable about it as to whether it was my responsibility or not. If I’m upset with him for being gay, then yes it’s my responsibility. Otherwise, I’m not seeing it.
As I said earlier, people are miserable for all sorts of reasons. People are bullied for all sorts of reasons. I’m not a soothsayer, so I cannot make a prediction that just because my child is X that means he will be miserable.
So ‘most people’ acknowledge that, I do not - I just don’t see it. To me it’s like asking me if I would inject a shot to make them male/female/of a certain race/etc.
There are always going to be people out there who are bigots towards certain traits - why should I be concerned with making those people happy? My concentration should be on my child. Their orientation has no bearing on their happiness, their attitude toward their orientation does and that’s beyond the control of a shot.
My reasoning was, obviously, that some people do have abortions because their children are female. I gave a link which had this, among a few other reasons, on it:
Which seems to be parallel with what you are saying about homosexuals.
So now can you please answer my question as to why your mentality does not justify abortions for this reason? If it’s because they are ‘abortions’ then would you be in favor of these countries being able to take shots to ensure their children were male? Should those countries do so if they love their children?
Obviously, an unwanted pregnancy effects my child more than it effects me.
Being gay, not sure how that effects my child.. maybe less choice for life partners? Perhaps I should yearn for a bisexual child so they have the best of both worlds.
The gay children/young adults I know seem perfectly happy.(at least as happy as their non-gay contemporaries).
More like “no choice of life partners” really. You are talking about a society were there is an anti gay vaccine, i assume everything else would be equal. Gays would be virtually extinct.
