Ten Reasons why I despise the "Should People with Diabetes have Kids" debate

I made the mistake of reading the "Cheating Destiny" discussion at http://www.islet.org/forum/wwwboard.htm . I'm a little worked up, to say the least. So here are ten thoughts that went through my mind as I read.

10. I have kids. I bristle at being called selfish and immoral for having them.

9. It's a slippery slope. To say that people who know they RISK passing on a gene that MIGHT result in a chronic illness should not procreate is to say that NO ONE should have children.

8. Stopping people who have diabetes from having children will NOT eliminate diabetes! Neither of my parents have diabetes, nor is there any history of it in my family... so where did it come from!? Should ALL people with a history of an inheritable disease be discouraged from having children? Is there anyone genetically worthy of the honor of procreating?

7. Hearing people with diabetes who have decided not to have children because they would never pass such an awful condition onto their kids makes me SAD. I know I've been lucky with my diabetes, I know that there are people who suffer greatly, but it makes me sad to hear life with diabetes characterized as not worth it. They would honestly rather that they had never been born!

6. It is SO CRUEL to parents of children with diabetes. To tell them that their child's diagnosis is a TRAGEDY and to imply that their children should not have been born, it's nauseating.

5. The moment you apply the logic to other populations, it gets UGLY. Try it. Replace 'diabetes' with 'poverty-stricken' or 'history of cancer'.

4. It smacks of striving for genetic perfection. That's familiar, eh?

3. One person argued that we people with type 1 should be dead before we get the chance to procreate (if not for the insulin that keeps us alive). Well then, should we stop treating the flu in children? I mean, following that logic, only those hearty enough to survive *all* illnesses should be granted the privelege of parenthood. We're defeating natural selection with all this LIVING and Surviving we're doing.

2. The argument is based on faulty data and personal experience with diabetes. You cannot apply that to the population in general. It's like saying that no one should get married because your marriage sucked and the rate of divorce is high.

1. IT DENIES HOPE AND FAITH AND JOY and assumes that an imperfect life is a life not worth living. And that is perhaps the saddest thing I've ever heard.