Children aren’t shoes. But they are still a choice.

Why is it when I read Miranda Devine’s latest article about the ‘commodification of children’ (and more on that later) do I get the feeling that she doesn’t really care about children. Not about unborn children. Not about living children. What she’s more concerned about is making her choices the only option available. Actually, it is probably even less than that: she’s just happy heaping scorn and judgement on those not lucky enough to have her life.

Infertile? Poor? Caring for a disabled child? Bad luck you fuckers!

It’s telling that during her despicable rant she never mentions support for disabled children once they’re born. She never mentions that poor Maia Comas’ parents received NO help. They were isolated. From family. From friends. When they uttered the words to child services that Miranda uses to condemned them, the simple words of “I can’t cope” and asked for help and potential options, including euthanasia, does Miranda detail the social worker’s response? No – because the social worker did nothing. Nothing. The social worker walked away and left them by themselves. Why doesn’t Miranda mention this fact? Because she isn’t interested in helping these people, only vilifying them.

As for my take, perhaps it’s not that the social worker didn’t want to ring bells, it was more that there were no bells to ring. As with parents, social workers have no choices when it comes to disabled children – there is nothing they can do to help. No foster parents. No adoptive parents. No temporary accommodation. No assistance whatsoever.

Miranda Devine considers parents with disabled children to not be worthy of assistance. To her they are simply guilty of not considering the full horror of what Rett Syndrome might mean to their lives before deciding to have a child. She sneers at their hopes for a healthy child. Got a disabled child? Bad fucking luck, hippies. Want support? Not with my tax dollars, she cries. School? Well, there’s the school chaplain!

Miranda is against gender selection. She’s against abortion. She’s against IVF. But not against adoption? Talk about children as commodities. You can pick the gender, race, eye colour of children. You can insist on no genetic defects. If you don’t think the child IS GOOD ENOUGH LOOKING, you can back out. It’s just like… like buying a pair of shoes! If Miranda really thought this stuff was immoral, adoption would be blind choice – boy, girl, healthy, disabled, from any race, attractive, unattractive – you put your hand up and get the next in line because that is the kid who needs it the most and been waiting the longest.

See, Miranda isn’t really worried about the commodification of children or a buyer’s market – what she cares about that the market is created by methods that agree with her sensibilities. Simply, if you don’t want to give birth to a baby, don’t have sex. It doesn’t matter what happens to the child afterwards – adoption, poverty, abuse, whatever – as long as the woman is forced to have a child. If the ‘market options’ involve a women exercising control over their fertility – that is immoral. Double standards don’t exist for Miranda.

Hell, she’s even despises childcare. Women: sex means you have that baby and stay at home!

Come on, Miranda – let’s hear it – put your hand up and say “I’ll foster a disabled kid” or “I’ll adopt a disabled newborn”. What’s that? What IS that sound? BIRDS FUCKING TWEETING, that’s what that noise is.

Though, I can’t say I blame you. Nobody starts out to create a new life hoping for a disabled child as a result. Yeah, that’s fucking cold to say it out loud, but what does the sentence “I don’t care what I have, as long as it’s healthy” really mean if not that?

So news flash, Miranda: life ain’t a fucking rainbow of joy. Not everyone is capable of caring for a disabled child. Some parents, at some point, might prefer a child of a particular gender over another. Some couples, at some point, might not be able to afford a child and decide on abortion. Some parents might discover genetic defects and not want a child to live that life. Some women, once they have children, will want to return to work. Some will stay at home. Sometimes, contraception isn’t perfect. Some couples have a hard time falling pregnant, but are still driven to want children. Some of them chose adoption. Some chose assisted reproduction technologies like IVF or surrogacy. And yes, some just move on.

There isn’t one – right – choice. There isn’t one – right – way to want children. Or raise them.

And if you don’t agree with child euthanasia, tell me what are you doing to prevent the scenario. No, no, besides sneering I mean.

Parents want the best for their child. Parents are entitled to decide what quality of life they are happy for their child to have and sometimes, the quality of life that is even possible is less than the parents can accept. What then?

If they can’t cope and you won’t help, where does that leave the child? But I forget, you don’t actually care about the child. Not the way parents do.