Friday, November 23, 2007

Newton's Third Law

I'm detecting a pro-reproduction bias in the Daily Mail. See if you agree.

Daily Mail | Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly

At the age of 27 this young woman at the height of her reproductive years was sterilised to "protect the planet".

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni [Vermelli], 35.

"Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."
I'm all for it when people with little to no parental inclinations decide not to reproduce. The "reporters," though, make no attempt to hide their disgust and horror. They barely manage not to chortle when the woman admits that she and her husband "have a much nicer lifestyle as a result of not having children," which they describe at some length.

Daily Mail | Woman told she'd had a miscarriage - then has triplets instead

When she was told she had suffered a miscarriage, Beverley Cunningham was devastated.

At the age of 40, she feared her last chance to have another baby had slipped away.

But only 24 hours later, after a scan to confirm the miscarriage, she and her husband Andrew were given the most incredible news.

Mrs Cunningham was still pregnant - with triplets.

At odds of nearly a million to one, she had conceived quads naturally, but had miscarried one of them at 12 weeks.
The story tries to present this as a feel-good story of a woman's triumph over a medical setback, having long-desired children despite the odds. The detail that these are children number five, six and seven glides by almost unnoticed.

But check the message board at Fark.com for conjecture that one of these children is...evil.

(Newton's third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the same demographic that was in the newspapers a few weeks ago? The ones who were duming boyfriends/girlfriends for eating (shudder) meat?

RNB

Anonymous said...

That should be 'dumping,' obviously. (I hope.)

Anonymous said...

Of COURSE there is a pro-reproductive bias; the birthrate in Britain is 'way down, and the highest birthrate is amongst immigrants, many of whom do not identify themselves as British, and have no intention of assimilating. France has the same problem, only worse.