Here's something crazy: A couple is leaving the fate of their unborn baby to the online community. They created a website that allows anonymous visitors to vote whether they should keep the baby or have an abortion. So far, they've received a whopping 200,000 votes-- 64% says to keep the baby, 36% says to abort the fetus.
On the website, they explain the rationale behind this unconventional approach: They want to illustrate the power of democracy and the impact of an individual's voice on the outcome, very much unlike the democracy of today's politics.
Although I understand what they're trying to do, putting the future of their baby fetus at the mercy of strangers behind computer screens is not only abominable in the moral sense but also evidence of a generation becoming too comfortable and reliant on the integrity of the online community.
I believe that giving birth to a child should be a personal decision between the couple. They know best about their financial and emotional readiness. The decision to keep or abort the child under their personal circumstances should be the result of a deep, thought-out analysis by the mother and father -- It should not be the result of a computed online poll of strangers. Sure, the couple briefs the strangers by summarizing their lives with bulletproofs: their level of education, current occupation, marriage background, parents' level of education (this is relevant...why?), etc., but how do they expect these factoids to provide strangers with enough insight to know better than themselves whether they should keep the child or not?
Yes, the online community is the most diverse forum out there, with people from all sorts of religious and political backgrounds, upbringings and beliefs. It's great for general poll-taking, regarding politics, ethics, etc., but it's not always dependable. It can easily become rigged. It can easily become one-sided, if, hypothetically, a pro-(fill in the blank) finds and circulates the website among its followers, while the con side isn't even aware of the poll's existence. That's just one example. Or, someone could think it'd be funny to vote over and over again against the general current. While this wouldn't have a lasting effect in general polls, in this case it will determine the future of the baby and this couple forever.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not condemning the couple for considering abortion as an open option. Rather, I'm condemning their method of making this decision. This should not be a matter of public discourse but a matter of logical dialogue in a family.
I definitely agree with you. It shouldn't be left to the hands of the online community to decide whether or not that particular couple should keep their baby. Even though I do understand why the couple is doing it, which is to show the power of democracy, the power of democracy should not be used in a life or "no life" situation.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy! While I do think it is kind of innovative for them to take such a crazy and out-there approach to make a point for "democracy" or "social democracy", they are definitely taking it too far by allowing the online community to make that decision for them. For some reason, I find it hard to believe that the online community would actually vote in favor of an abortion, and that to some degree the anonymous couple must have known that going into it. Still. But, if they hadn't taken such a radical approach, would we even be discussing right now? Maybe they did know what they were doing all along (although, I still think they are kinda nutty).
ReplyDeleteThis is absurd. It is such a personal private decision that it disgusts me how willing they are to let others make the decision for them. It makes me think they already made their decision and are just doing this for some kind of publicity stunt. Yuck.
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