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Essay: Arguing Eugenics by [Mardra Sikora, Julie Haase, Kelly Roberts]

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Mardra Sikora

Essay: Arguing Eugenics Kindle Edition

by Mardra Sikora (Author), Julie Haase (Editor), Kelly Roberts (Photographer) Format: Kindle Edition

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“Arguing Eugenics: A case for changing the world” is an essay by advocate and speaker, Mardra Sikora. Ms. Sikora addresses the issue of entire nations becoming “Down syndrome free” and argues the case for children considered to be imperfect. Filled with facts about Down syndrome, quotes from specialists, and personal anecdotes, this quick read will leave you with a clearer picture of the power of potential.
This is not an essay about Pro-Choice or Pro-Life. This essay is directed towards: Parents-to-be who want a child, the families of those parents, and the health care providers that work with those parents. It is these three groups that make eugenics possible or stop its progression.
It is a Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest 2014 Finalist.

Length: 15 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Language: English

Product details

ASIN : B00FIVR55E
Language : English
File size : 882 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 15 pages

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Sherry McCaulley Palmer, Author

Don't Count on Seeing Me in Denmark - I'd Rather Count my Chromosomes

Reviewed in the United States on 25 October 2014

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Can I give this six stars?

A well-written essay that is grounded in research and personal experience, Mardra Sikora's "Arguing Eugenics" extends beyond the subject of genetic testing (for the purpose creating a society free from the burden of Down syndrome) and into the heart of a world in danger of eliminating much more than an extra chromosome. As a writer and mother of a young adult with Down syndrome myself, I applaud Sikora's ability to lay out the facts while making the reader think with their hearts through the logic of her son Marcus.

"Arguing Eugenics" takes a subject often written about in medical and technical terms, and fine tunes the lens to so those unfamiliar with Down syndrome can see clearly how whole communities would suffer the consequences of eliminating often the most compassionate among us. If I were to sum it up, I would wager to say that a world without Down syndrome is a world in danger of reducing itself to breathing in and out. While Sikora does not glamorize naïveté regarding special needs individuals, be it children with cancer or those who are born with spinal bifida, rather, she is a realist who sees the value in every human life, while charging the rest of us to do the same. What gives anyone the right to decide who has value and who does not? What gives anyone the right to decide that another human being is a burden? I agree with Sikora one-hundred percent, no one has the right to set that criteria. Not Denmark, not anyone.

I found Sikora's essay to be an invaluable piece of research delivered with wisdom. Mostly, however, I found it to be a fair synopsis of the lives faced everyday by special needs families. There is no perfect person. Aiming for a perfect world filled with only perfect people (which means a world without that extra chromosome) is no world I want to live in. I cannot imagine a world without the unconditional love of individuals with Down syndrome. Apparently, neither can Sikora.

There is a society, however that does not agree. If Denmark is knocking on that door, I say don't open it. Be very afraid. When one knocks others do too. Before we know it, Down syndrome will cease to exist, and so will life as we know it for our loved ones who are game changers.

The choice is ours. Want a perfect world? Step right up. Get your one-way ticket to Denmark. As for me,mid rather count my chromosomes. Want a world of perfect unconditional love and acceptance? Then send in the Down. Rock on, Marcus. Be that agent of change that Sikora writes about. And listen up folks, don't even think of sweeping this one under the rug. Sikora is in the house.

Respectfully submitted, Sherry McCaulley Palmer.

Pigglies

Slippery Slope?

Reviewed in the United States on 15 October 2013

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Should testing be banned, so that mothers will be forced to care for whatever infant they happen to have? Should scientists keep trying to test for more and more things, so that all disabled/diseased fetuses could be aborted?

The author clearly has done a great deal of research and has had personal experience on this topic. Unfortunately, it does not read like a final draft of an argument. Despite the lack of editing, I still felt it was a good essay overall. I did not agree with all of her points, yet I cannot say that means it is not a good essay. Definitely gives you something to think about at the very least.

For future works, I personally thought that the analogy of testing for future childhood cancer was a bit far fetched. However, the first thing that came to my mind when it got into diseases that wouldn't show up until far into the future, was Huntingtons Disease. What if the fetus was going to grow up into someone who would have a terrible disease at age 35? Would society want them to have those 35 good years or should they be aborted? And that probably is something that scientists could come up with a test for in the very near future (or perhaps there already is such an in utero test). Something to consider.

Coolestmommy

Eloquently stated for beautiful lives everywhere

Reviewed in the United States on 3 October 2013

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Mardra Sikora asks--and answers--some tough questions about the widening role prenatal testing is taking in the attempt to create a perfect society. As a parent of a child with a different disability--autism--I understand firsthand why she has written her essay.

I find her words to be passionate, but not one sided. She clearly presents both sides to the argument. I respect her for that. But what sticks with me the most is the reference to potential. People with disabilities can (and are) changing the world daily. Some through their research, their discoveries or their inventions. And others because of who they are and how they interact with the world. My life would be poorer and emptier for not knowing and loving people with all sorts of disabilities.

And it frightens me to think of where eugenics takes us long term. For now, we start with trying to eradicate Down Syndrome. What if we decide to eradicate those who could catch a cold, those who might have depression, those with weak knees? What then?? What then.

Aaron Brown

Thought-provoking

Reviewed in the United States on 5 December 2013

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This essay brought light to an issue I hadn't contemplated. Indeed, I considered eugenics to be an awful but extinct idea, one that had died with the Nazis and America's shameful experiments in the early 20th-century. Sikora makes it clear how this idea has continued to advance and threatens to become even more pervasive in our technologically able times. That said, eugenics now is a more fraught issue given that the targets aren't racial, but medical. I commend this brief but powerful essay to anyone.

Karen Ronan

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on 3 January 2015

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Beautifully written and well thought out. This was just what I needed to read! Karen Ronan.

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