Okay... SOME Parts of College Rock

My Child Psych course is a pretty standard 200-person lecture class. It's a prerequisite for almost every other psychology course, and is fairly low level. I'm pretty bored with it, but I'll deal. My problem is that the people aren't exactly the brightest bulbs. The other day we were talking about prenatal genetic testing for heritable diseases.

The professor asked what the moral and ethical implications for prenatal genetic testing were, so, of course, a (slightly) older gentleman in the front row raised his hand and said:
"You could test for a disease, then get an abortion based on the test results."
And the teacher agreed; prenatal testing could lead to horrible things like abortion. It is true that this is an ethical issue that we should contemplate, but I am inclined to disagree with my professor's sentiment. There are many diseases that would cause a child to be better off dead. We could argue about this all day, but it would be missing the point of this post.

Two days later we were talking about the spread of HIV and AIDS through breastfeeding, and the same guy asks:
"Is there a law against breastfeeding if you have AIDS?! There should be! It's murder!"
This statement missed the obvious fact that all childbirth is murder, not even mentioning the multitude of horrible genetic deformities and diseases that can drastically decrease the quality of life (and lifespan!) of those who inherit them... All of those could be easily avoided. Through what you ask? Abortion of course.

Later on in my discussion group the T.A. asked what the ethical implications of genetically engineering children could be. One particularly perky girl (this class is at 8 A.M... No one should be perky at that hour lol) answered in a spectacularly thoughtless fashion. She said:
"Well, if we make perfect humans we'd be interfering with the way God made us."
Thank Pasta it was so early in the morning, otherwise I probably would have smashed my forehead into my palm.

Oh well! I guess I'll just have to focus on the positive... like, I'm in college! I have my own house! I love learning!