A lively debate for all those up to it.....

I am currently reading a book entitled GENIE: A Scientific Tragedy by Russ Rymer. It is a refresher and a more in-depth study of a topic I studied in my Language Development and Children course in college. The story fascinated me even then...though I didn't even know the half of it. As the title states, it IS a tradegy. A tragedy of mankind.
I suppose I was raised naive and sheltered. At one time I had no idea people lived any different than me. Then, having realized that- the next realization was the sheer number of such victims and following that, the depth of destruction that these individuals faced. Genie is a girl who was held captive in her own home. She was treated worse than any animal. She was tied to a potty seat for the entire day-locked in a room with nothing on the walls. Her father hated noise, so those who made it were severely punished and thus the home was devoid of noise. No one was allowed to see her during the day unless to hastily feed her. If she was remembered, she would be placed in a homemade bag that zipped her arms inside (like a straight-jacket) and placed in a crib that had mesh on all sides including the top....a cage for sleeping at night. She was feed only baby food. She was 13 years old when she was found. Her 13 year old frame was only 59 inches tall and 54 pounds. She could not chew. She refused to make any sound...because even a small sob heard from her father would initiate a severe beating.

She was discovered and became a scientific experiment. EVERYONE wanted to see her...experiment with her. Learn from her. The times were in the midst of a great debate about Language Acquisition-but no one could discover where and how language came out (whether innate or learned) by testing "normal" children because it would be at the expense of a human. Moral issues arose. Everyone wanted their piece of her, wanted to take full advantage of her to answer this heated debate. She was fair game because she had not experienced language of any kind, and so was already ‘screwed up’.

I am constantly surprised by the depth of pain people endure and survive. My naïve-self thought the jungle book was just a childrens' story. I was wrong. Situations like that do indeed happen. Some of the documented cases of children raised by animals are....a Hesse wolf-child, an Irish sheep-child, two Lithuanian bear-children, and MANY MORE. These children were actually adopted into these ‘packs’ or ‘herds’. In January 1800 a boy was discovered who was coined the Wild Boy. He was found naked at a tanner's hut in the woods when he was 12. His throat had been slit as a toddler and he was abandoned in the forest to die. He survived each winter without clothes, eating only acorns and other forest growth. (HOW COULD HE POSSIBLY LIVE, I wonder?!?!?) His story is tragic as well. He was found, experimented on, became attached to one particular scientist, but the moment the hyposthesis they were trying to prove was indeed, proven, the scientist (the only person the boy ever learned to trust and care for) abandoned him and never visited him again, though he worked only a few houses down from where the boy was living.

It is a shame for humanity, first, that children like these would even exist and their parents are cruel enough to abandon them, but also that those ‘civilized’ individuals see humanity only as science and nothing more and use these children as resources and experiments and then discard them when they are through.

Somewhat on topic, at Michelle’s baby shower this week, we spoke a little bit about genetic engineering. There were many thoughts, both pro and con, about it and it led to an interesting discussion. Of course there is danger when in comes to picking genders, eye colors, etc. but what about ridding oneself of disease? The point was made that ridding oneself of mutated or imperfect cells/DNA is just like using penicillin…preventing disease to sustain life. Then, it was brought up that Christians are given wisdom in all aspects of life, medically not excluded, and God has given us this knowledge for a reason-therefore, we should use this knowledge to help sustain life. But I ask, where does one draw the line (if at all) when it comes to using worldly wisdom to further one’s life? There are certain ‘gray’ areas that don’t make for easy answers. What think ye of invitro-fertilization? It goes against ‘nature’ but is following scripture’s view of children being blessings and wanting to raise godly seed. What about ectopic pregnancies? Though the baby might die an unnatural (though inevitable) death, life is sustained and preserved through the mother (which it will not be if left untreated and the baby continues to grow.) What about surrogate mothering? It is very unnatural, and you certainly didn’t see it in biblical times, but it still follows the line of thinking that children are a blessing and that families should raise Godly seed. All these examples are areas that are not clear-cut, that require discretion, prudence, and wisdom coming out your ears. I don’t have all the answers-neither does Matt. We haven’t even reached conclusions to many of these topics, praying that we will not have to come to a point where a situation requires one. But it certainly makes for interesting discussions and I think it would make an interesting online discussion if anyone is game. I am all ears for different points of view. To avoid overtaking blogdom with comments, perhaps we should stick to the primary question and that is, when should we say ‘when’ to using scientific means (and worldy wisdom) to further, sustain, and perfect out lives? Is there a limit, at all? You can bring the other questions into your answer-but don’t expect an answer from me pertaining those-after all, in the above stated disclosure, I do not even suppose to know the answers to those questions.