Another Modest Proposal

Nearly 300 years ago, Jonathan Swift satirically proposed that the sale of Irish children for human consumption would solve economic distress on the Emerald Isle.

Buried within his satire were his actual proposals that few heeded.

Today, various versions of one sentiment reappear as America discusses the abortion issue on social media. It’s not satire, and it goes something like this:

“If you end legal abortion, who’s going to pay for all those children?” Or: “Are YOU willing to pay for those children?”

So I offer this proposal which could be replicated as needed across the nation:

Instead of aborting, say, 50 children, give me custody so that I might find good homes for them. Many people want to adopt today and would love to have a newborn.

Let’s say I find homes for 40 of them. We can applaud ourselves for having matched up homeless children and yearning parents.

We will have saved 40 lives and passed the expense of their care on to others more than willing to carry it.

But what shall we do with those whom we might call the leftovers?

We could (hypothetically) offer to our commenters the opportunity to potentially save themselves some tax dollars by dispatching the children themselves.

I’m fairly certain, however, that they’d find this act distasteful. The ‘beauty’ of abortion from their perspective is that it’s quick, cheaper (than care), and, to them, unseen.

Yet I would ask them to hear me out about other possibilities and advantages that could be available. After all, why just save tax dollars when you could actually gain income too?

Planned Parenthood has been selling baby parts–often from children born alive–without apparent penalty for some time.

For many research entities, the older the better–because the larger the child, the more tissue to be used in research. Alive and usable, rather than dead and chemically polluted or torn to bits, is quite advantageous.

We may, through such a practice, find a cure for a cruel disease. Look at all we garnered from the work of that German guy in the 1940s.

And as time passes, other opportunities will certainly show up.

For example, California’s legislature just passed a bill easing the penalty for adults engaging in sexual activity with “willing” minors, indicating that a market for living, older children already exists and is certain to grow.

We might work something out that would lessen the occurrence of wanted children being snatched off our streets–of traffickers grooming wanted children to become the “willing”. In their place, these “unwanted” children could serve.

Part of the deal could include a stipend plus reimbursement of taxes paid to support those our commenters consider disposable.

After all the bottom line is the bottom line.

Commenters divert attention from the humanity of children awaiting execution to the expenses children already born incur–costs they seem to deeply resent.

But the commenters are correct about one thing. More Christians could do more to foster already born children, mentor children on the precipice, and give to those in need.

In the end, we will all give an accounting for our compassion or lack of it.

For how much time, effort, and money we provided to help children in distress.

Or how we resented these innocents to the point of death.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

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20 Replies to “Another Modest Proposal”

  1. Being pro-life is from womb to tomb; it stands to reason that being “pro death” must be equally consistent. I am staunchly pro life but believe both sides of the abortion debate could use more consistency. We who care about unborn children must, like you, continue to care and show compassion and support for women who have made the choice for life and, especially, for their children. Thank you for being a consistent voice for life, Nancy.

    1. More of us do than the other side is willing to admit. But the church alone could solve the foster care crisis if one family in every church would foster. That’s all it would take. Thanks, Candice, and God bless!

  2. Our culture employs euphemisms to avoid the reality of what they are talking about.
    In this post, you stripped the polite veneer used to refer to barbaric practices and you’ve called things what they are.
    Thank you for speaking truth.

  3. You faced a challenging topic head on. Your message serves to increase awareness and to challenge us to do our part to contribute to solving this crisis. Thank you for being courageous in focusing on this issue.

  4. Thank you for your consistent efforts to shine light into this dark issue. God bless you! Every child matters. Every person matters, always.

  5. OUCH! The majority of Americans don’t like their toes stomped on about “distasteful” issues, as you put it. Even pro-lifers are not willing to put their money where their mouth is.
    One thing I can add though, as a former Crisis Pregnancy Center director–when a woman/teen watches the ultrasound and sees her products of conception look suspiciously like a baby, she often changes her mind and chooses life. She’s ready to figure out how to raise a child or she will brace herself for that ultimate sacrifice of allowing someone else to raise her baby.

    1. Thanks, Linda. Many pro-lifers do. So many people give all of themselves in many ways. The ones who only talk but won’t walk give the rest a bad name. In order to solve the foster child crisis in America, one family from every church would have to foster.

      Thank you so much for being one of those who has stepped up. It’s no easy task to head up a crisis pregnancy organization. God bless!

  6. Thank you for always telling it like it is, Nancy. This grim presentation of the current state of American vice regarding children is downright Dickensian. We’re back to kidnapping, selling children into sexual slavery, sending children off to labor in sweatshops, abusing children and molesting them as they work in said sweatshops, and to downright disposing of them never to be seen again. The world of human trafficking is grim and ugly.

    Our vote has something to do with this. Not only do we need a presidential candidate, senators, representatives, and state and local officials who have prolife platforms, but representatives who also support all of the necessities that young mothers need in order to birth and to keep and to care for their children, unless they choose to place them for adoptions. That includes affordable schooling, medical benefits, daycare options, and programs that help with food costs. All of that is needed, if we’re truly prolife, willing to help young expectant mothers, rather than to judge them.

    1. Yes, Melinda, those are the needs. And the church can provide so much of that. Government should fill the holes as needed. We are doing it all in reverse, leaving too many holes. The Church can present Christ and mentor moms, dads, kids, and family members into faith. And faith can lead them to independence. Government provides programs that trap people into poverty. Mentoring in life and faith frees them. Thanks and God bless!

  7. Nancy, I appreciate how you always give us a new perspective to consider with social debates, especially abortion. It’s beyond me how the other side thinks the way they think.

  8. Our view of children is sick and disturbing from every angle. Lord, have mercy on the children. Open the blind eyes of believers to be willing to extend a hand of help and mercy to the living children who need help, to end the argument of expense.

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