I am of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, and my parents are both carriers of the Tay-Sachs gene. Tay-Sachs, for those who don't know, is a genetic disorder found almost exclusively in Ashkenazi Jews in which a baby develops normally for a few months, then slowly begins to deteriorate. Usually, the baby suffers severe mental retardation, painful movement, loss of senses, and death by early childhood. There is no known treatment or cure.
Fortunately, my fiance is not a carrier, so there is little-to-no chance of it happening to us, but if my parents had discovered that one of their children was going to be born with Tay-Sachs, my mother would have aborted, no questions asked. If you believe that abortion is murder, I can respect that, even if I don't agree with it, but I feel that some fates are worse than death, and condemning a child to the four to six years of the living hell that is Tay-Sachs is one of them.
THE MARQUIS: HES IN UR PRISONS, RITIN TEH SMUTFIC
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