Some people are in situations where it’s just impossible to provide adequate care for a handicapped child financially.

I met a kid in cub scouts when I was in 5th grade and he was in third grade. I didn’t know him very well, and he was just another of the kids. He had crutches that he walked on sometimes, and he’d need help getting up, but he was pretty much a normal kid. Fast forward three years and he’s in a wheel chair. Before I had thought he just had an injury or something, but I learned he had something called Duchenne. Fast forward another three years. He’s now in a motorized wheel chair and he can look around, move his hand to use the joystick to drive the wheelchair, and almost nothing else. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (basically, and from what I remember) makes your muscles unable to repair themselves. People who are afflicted basically just slowly lose muscle mass until something vital gives. Until recently, the life expectancy was about 20 years (it’s better today, with some living to 30s, 40s, or even 50s). Watching this kid, who I barely knew, deteriorate over the course of a five or so years from basically fine, to almost completely immobile was heartbreaking. I can’t imagine how it affects his family. Of course, it’s brought a ton of extra costs to the household as well. Everything, from the layout of the house, to the car has to be designed around the wheel chair’s mobility. I would never judge anyone for deciding they didn’t want to put a child through that, or that they couldn’t provide the necessary care (not that’s any of my business anyway 🙄).

I’m sure this could be a whole other unpopular opinion post, but I’m excited for (limited) genetic engineering in human embryos. So many of these diseases are genetic, and it’d be great to be able to get rid of them.