If you look at the website for the charity, it's clearly a charity meant to deal with true facial deformities. There is a difference between the way our genes manifest to make us attractive / ugly and being born with something malformed. I am guessing, just based on the charity's website, that this girl had some sort…

Many of these comments show a distinct lack of understanding of what it is like to have a true deformity. I was born with a facial deformity and had two major plastic surgeries, one as a young child and one as a teenager, in an attempt to correct it. A deformity cannot be solved by trying to have inner confidence. My…

To go from no medal to gold is what's conspicuous. Usually you see people get a few silvers and bronzes as they work their way up to being the best in the world.

Cats actually tend to not drink much water, no matter how many bowls are left out, because in the wild they get their water from their food. Vets recommend a diet of wet and dry food to keep your little guys healthy.

Hah! My mom also was surprised she got pregnant, and my parents wedding was a shotgun marriage too. My dad had been told he couldn't have kids though, so I can't really blame them!

I could not believe it when I read that hysterectomies actually had a .5% accidental pregnancy rate. Can you even imagine?

I don't take it as a diatribe and this is a really interesting perspective, so I hope others see it! (Stupid Kinja!) I do know there are real accidental pregnancies, and a lot of the times they sound just like this - women who were told they had reduced or no fertility, only to find out otherwise. I actually was the…

They work with perfect use, and I think it's way harder to have perfect use with those methods than with actual birth control.

I understand that! I do think that young parents especially feel a real stigma about saying they planned to have a baby, since they get judged for not having enough money, being old enough, etc. If you say it was an accident you avoid the judgement (or at least trade it for another kind.)

Hah, that seems like a very sweet and fun attitude!

I would guess that perfect use is pretty rare though. I'm totally able to believe that it's effective if done correctly 100% of the time but I know so many people who've had too much to drink one night, said, oh, one time is not going to kill us, and then not worried about getting Plan B the day afterwards. And then,…

I think there is a lot of not using birth control correctly and then saying "I don't know how it happened!" Like missing a few pills and then taking them all at once, taking a month "off" of birth control to lose weight / clear your skin / whatever. Which means you didn't really accidentally get pregnant - or you did,…

I've pretty much stopped believing in "accidental" pregnancy. (Please note I'm saying that totally tongue in cheek.)

I resent the idea that it is somehow brave or noble to make the decision to give birth to an impaired child. I think we can look at society and see who receives far more judgement for their decision - the people who choose to abort. Right now, women who abort for reasons like that face criticism that they are selfish,…

First of all, eugenics seeks to change the genetic make-up of a population. Downs is not a hereditary disease, and so no one is actually speaking about eugenics here. But I understand how you're using the term, and so I'll ask you the same question I asked the other poster - is there any disease that you think…

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I want to be very clear that I'm not saying I think anyone should ever have been born. Now that I am here, I do my best to make the most of my life and it is mostly a happy life. I hope that I have enriched others lives in even a fraction of the way your brother-in-law has - I…

I'm going to have to bow out of this conversation, because I need to go get work done, and I just don't think we're going to get to a point where we agree. I think using the word "kills" is inflammatory language that borders on fear-mongering, and is a word that is a huge part of anti-choice rhetoric. I don't believe…

Since we're having conversations in two different places, I am just going to respond to both of them here.

I'm not telling anyone they must abort. People are entitled to their beliefs. But no, abortion is not killing someone. Especially not at 11 weeks. Sorry but that is anti-choice rhetoric and I think it's dangerous to engage in it. Something that has not been born and has no sentience is not alive, and therefore cannot…