Baby born with anencephaly to please jesus?

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Christians seem to really believe they have the moral high ground on so many different issues, but do they really?

Ever heard of anencephaly? It's a neural tube defect that causes babies to form without a significant part of the brain/skull. It's detected very early on in pregnancy, and babies born with this defect normally only live a few hours, though a very few live just a few days.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002547/

I first read about Heather Walker on cafemom. I was told I have to be a christian to understand, but that is an insult to my intelligence, and the intelligence of non-christians everywhere.

Heather found out her baby would be born with this defect early in her pregnancy. I've counseled several women who have shared her predicament, and all of them, whether "good christian" or not, terminated the pregnancy. It's the merciful thing to do, really. There is just no hope for a baby with this kind of defect, so for a mother to go on with the pregnancy, knowing her baby will be born without the top of it's head, and die shortly after being born, is just too much for most women.

Heather Walker didn't do that. Normally, I wouldn't have a word to say about it. I am pro-choice, after all, but the more I looked into it and realized the morally repulsive reality of the situation, the more infuriated I became.

So because Heather loved Jesus SO much, she thought it would be super virtuous of her to have her baby and use him as a prop in an 8 hour long, smiling-faced photo op, with 40+ members of her friends and family, only ending once her baby was dead. Her virtuous actions didn't end with that. After her baby died, she took those pictures, and is using them to benefit herself and her family financially, and spread the word that she so so unbelievably moral because she chose "life" for her baby.

They even took a picture of his lifeless body holding a small book entitled, "My First Bible".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...JuKJHx69sE

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Benefit-f...6448648145

Now, I thought about this for a while. I thought maybe I was just a bitch, because this woman's "touching story" made me want to hurl. I wanted to share this, and see if I am the only one, or if other people can see how this is exactly the sort of thing Hitchens was talking about when he said "religion poisons everything".

Women out there who find out that their baby has anencephaly are not murderers because they terminate their pregnancy. They're not monsters deserving the wrath of jesus, because they couldn't bring themselves to give birth to a baby with no brain, only to bury it a couple days later.

Heather Walker is not a saint, nor an incredibly moral person for exploiting her son, posting videos of slideshows, depicting a smiling happy family, and a dying brainless baby, who they refer to as "Our Little Servant". Is this what she's teaching her other kids is morally right? If so, I feel really sorry for them.

The truth is, I'm not morally offended by Heather's choice to go to term with her pregnancy, and have the baby. What offends me is the exploitation of the child, the gleeful smiles on the faces of those who participated, and the use of this tragedy to benefit financially. It's like the Hallmark card of christian backwardness.

Anyway, my aunt was also born with a neural tube defect called spina bifida. There were no ultrasounds back then, but my grandmother took excellent care of her, and she lived to be almost 40 years old, passing away when I was 12 years old. She was the spokes-child for The March of Dimes, and helped raised money and awareness for lots of children born with defects. Not one person could bring themselves to smile and pose for a picture as she laid dying. Just sayin'.

Thoughts? What the fuck kind of loving god would allow something like anencephaly to happen to an innocent baby, anyway?

Well, I don't really know much about what kind of a moral high ground either of the side has here.
It's a baby that lives for a very small amount of time. Really, not very different if it were aborted. At the end, they die. Besides, it's not like that there is much of a mercy to be had there. If she were to live for longer than it had to, well, it could be considered merciful, both to the child and yourself to abort that baby.