Verified Document

Family Planning - Personal Choices Family Planning: Essay

Family Planning - Personal Choices Family Planning: Personal Choices

In her essay, "Freeing Choices," Nancy Mairs discusses the personal choices in family planning, which significant advances in the field of medical technology and genetics are now likely to make possible. Prior to the advent of ultrasounds and amniocentesis, it was not possible for would-be-parents to learn the sex of their unborn child. Indeed, other than practicing family planning to prevent the creation of new life, families had little choice but to accept the new born, irrespective of the sex or their hopes for a son or daughter. Today, however, it is possible to use "amniocentesis to determine the sex of a fetus, followed by abortion if the parents don't want the sort they've begun." (Mairs, p. 435) Thus, modern technology and knowledge have...

It is this central fact that explains the reason why Mairs has titled her essay as "Freeing Choices."
Mairs builds a strong case for defending the rights of differently abled Americans, principally by inviting the reader to visualize several hypothetical situations entailing a decision to abort a new life. For instance, she conjectures a situation where many people might well consider abortion if they were told that their child would be born with a genetic defect, which causes visual impairment. Mairs technique in drawing these hypothetical situations is brilliant since she takes the trouble to first sympathize with the plight of such parents in being asked to make such a difficult choice. She achieves this through displaying a deep knowledge and understanding of the quality of life and problems that the parents of such disabled children are likely to face. However, in each instance, Mairs immediately follows through by pointing out the basic right of differently abled people to life: "But these are otherwise ideal children...going to become terrific adults. The problem is that if you eliminate one flaw, you throw out the whole complicated creature, and my world would be a poorer place without Michael and Megan." (Mairs, p. 437) Thus, by critically examining both the pros and cons of such decisions,…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Mairs, N. "Freeing Choices." Community of Readers. P.435-437.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Family Systems and Marriage Preparation Programs It
Words: 1445 Length: 4 Document Type: Literature Review

Family Systems and Marriage Preparation Programs It has been a recent development within the United States when the government has started making an effort to establish marriage programs that can help strengthen the foundation of marriages. They have done so by recently joining hands with the church and other faith-based organizations that run marriage preparation programs. One such organization is the Association of Couples for Marriage Enrichment (ACME) that primarily focuses

Family Ecology the Family Is
Words: 2218 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

It also varies with urban or rural residence. Urban households commonly earn more and enjoy a higher standard of living than rural households. The allocation for food spending corresponds to the biggest part of the family budget. However, as family income increases, the share in food in consumption expenses generally drops. This is most likely because of the popularity of "fast foods" nowadays. Socialization Process The process of socialization takes a

Family Violence Prevention Services Act Social Policy
Words: 1595 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Family Violence Prevention Services Act Social policy analysis must start with defining the problem that the policy is designed to address. For instance, Family Violence Prevention Services Act addresses the subject of family violence, domestic violence, and dating violence. A number of needs assessment have been conducted to establish the significance of the issue of family violence and to identify the effectiveness of numerous interventions addressing the issue. The existence of

Planning a More Successful Jamestown
Words: 528 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Likewise, it would have been advisable to conduct observations at different times of year so as to be able to anticipate the range of climatic conditions. The results of those series of experiments and observations would have allowed planners to stock future vessels with the necessary supplies (such as seeds, grains, raw materials, tools, and weapons) to ensure the safety and likely success of permanent settlements. Another approach that would

Family Therapy and Anorexia Nervosa
Words: 2683 Length: 8 Document Type: Research Paper

Family Therapy and Anorexia Nervosa Family Therapy & Anorexia Nervosa This paper is a literature review and discussion of how family therapy approaches anorexia nervosa. The premise for most of the research conducted using family based therapy is a theory by Salvador Minuchin and Mara Selvini from the 1970s that states in order for a sufferer of anorexia nervosa to recover the "family's structure or style of management [of problems] needs to

Family and Community Support and
Words: 2900 Length: 11 Document Type: Term Paper

...in the end 'the addict has to want to change' and if the addict does not want to change it does not matter what program..." that the addict is in. (National Institute of Justice, 2005) the National Institute of Justice reports that a woman "often retains legal custody of a child while in prison, and once out, may not have the child immediately returned to her by the family member

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now