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What about vain conceit? That is likely to die, too. It's often embarrassing to have a child who cries out in public for no reason, looks different, and acts different. He won't be at the top of his class, won't be the best athlete, and will probably never be voted Most Beautiful or Most Likely to Succeed.

I wonder, if our advanced technologies successfully eliminate the weak and needy, will future scholars, theologians, politicians, and poets ponder: "Why has our society become less loving, so selfish, so intolerant, so uncommitted to anything outside of individual gain? Why are we so full of selfish ambition and vain conceit?" Is this "perfect" society a place where any of us would want to live?

Angela Beise parents her four children with her husband, Jim, in Paris, where they serve as missionaries with the Mission Society.

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Aborting the Disabled discusses the trend in aborting children prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome and other genetic abnormalities, along with efforts to fight it.

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July 2005, Vol. 49, No. 7