Zero (they/their) (@ZeroWrites): CW: eugenics I have some thoughts.
Fetuses are not people, yet screening for particular neurotypes with the intention to remove them from the species is just eugenics. https://twitter.com/jazzgrackle/status/1419149430759075843
At any point in one's life, you may become temporarily or permanently disabled, even if you are not born disabled. This happens to children too. The longer one lives, the more likely you are to become disabled.
If you are not prepared to raise a disabled child, you are not prepared to raise a child.
In many parts of the world, being queer is as disabling as being mentally or physically disabled. One could argue that queerness itself is a type of neurological divergence. Are you going to abort a child if you knew they might be queer?
I support the right to choose, but with the artificial autistic bogeyman propagandized by organizations like Autism $peaks, any movement to offer prenatal screenings for autism is just an attempt at "neurotype cleansing" in humans.
"Their life will be harder!" some might say. "I cannot handle the challenges of raising them!"
Who's to say? No one knows whether one's life is going to be harder or easier, but I can tell you that structuring society to purposely oppress marginalized people isn't going to help.
Many folks have children for the wrong reasons. Maybe they want them to accomplish the dreams they gave up on. Maybe they have already mapped out the perfect path to their currently-abled, cishet, white, male, grandkids.
Those people are frequently going to be disappointed by their children, or their children will mask their undesirable traits and be more likely to develop C-PTSD.
Do you support folks having an abortion for female children? For the color of their hair or eyes?
In an idealized environment, sure. In the real-world, those sort of designer-baby options have significantly bad ramifications when instituted on a systemic basis.
If women aren't able to hold or inherit property, then it makes sense for an individual to choose a child identified as male over one designated female.
If being queer is illegal or ostracized, then it makes sense to for an individual to choose to bear a child more likely to be allocishet.
If one's child's life is going to be harder and you have the ability to make it easier, shouldn't you choose that? Men are less likely to be victims of sexual assault, less likely to attempt suicide, they make more money.
On an individual basis, everyone should choose the genes most likely to succeed and flourish.
But systems are not individuals, and what may be good for the goose is frequently not good for the gander—or not good for the flock as the case may be.
And systemic screening of neurotypes coupled with anti-neurotypical propaganda that we are subjected to in our society will result in a widespread genetic cleansing that the human race would be worse off for.
Life is so much better with diversity. Progress is so much more with variety of approach. Neurodiversity is critical for the success of our species.
But even if we were useless consumers with nothing to pay forward or back, we would still deserve to exist.