MovieChat Forums > Beyond Borders (2003) Discussion > Why even have a kid if you know it's goi...

Why even have a kid if you know it's going to suffer?

posted 21 years ago by flamepillar
29 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this movie yesterday and I've been moved pretty deeply. I already knew that there were some horrible things going on out there, but BB really gives a sobering look at what that life is like (and I'm sure it's even worse than I can fathom). I'm attempting a review of the movie but I have mixed feelings about something and maybe it's irrelevant but I just can't help but wonder.

We've been seeing starving children in television commercials as long as I've been around. That's only 27 years but I am assuming it's been like this for a lot longer than that. What I don't understand is why someone would choose to have a child in those conditions, knowing that the child is doomed to a life of suffering. Are you telling me that every single child out there, when they were born, had parents who thought they had the means to raise the child properly? Do they really think that after all this time, something is going to drop out of the sky and save them all between now and the time the child is, say, five years old? I'm not one to deny that Life is beautiful and valuable, but the question is -- valuable to whom? Certainly not to the child living the life, but maybe to the parents. That just seems awfully selfish. I guess when you're living the kind of life that they do, you'll do anything to bring joy into your life, you'll do anything for a reason to live. And having a kid is practically the only way to pacify that need. That's my best guess anyway. I just don't see what the point of life is if you don't have "a life" to go with it. But everyone thinks that "a life" is not important because it's not some divine gift provided by God the way Life itself is. Even more baffling is our obsession with preventing "birth defects" caused by drinking and smoking, when people who STARVE can have kids who are still alive at 5-6 years old.

I hope I'm not opening a can of worms or anything, I just don't know if maybe I've been misinformed about this kind of thing. I've led such a sheltered life that it is downright embarrassing for me some days, the things that I don't know about this world. It would be interesting to know the statistics, how many of the parents really believed that things would get better and how many of them just did it as an act of "desperation".

[–] TLDavis1230 18 years ago

I just read you comment, and I agree with you 99% in the sense that no one should have a child if they know beforehand that is subject to a life of nothing more than constant suffering. The 1% that I might disagree with you is that these are countries with may or may not have any central government, let alone anything else at their disposal. With that being said, these countries in question may not access to the same educational tools much less birth control that you may take advantage of so freely in you country.

Do not at all feel as though you are opening a can of worms; what you have done is open up a forum for interseting discussion...thanks for taking the time to watch the movie, let alone take the time to post a response to it.

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[–] zena-1 10 years ago

A doctor friend once told me that after working with MSF she learned that people who are starving seem to become super fertile as nature tries to replenish the opulation.A Mistake of nature oe might say.

[–] BulmaPunkRocker 10 years ago

I ask myself the same question about the poorest people in my country.
I'm poor, but I do know contraception, and it's available for me.
I'm for a third world country on it way to neoliberalist-capitalist "development" (Chile).

You have to keep in mind that, in real poor countries like Ethiopia, people DON'T KNOW about contraception, and of course they have no chance to get methods available. And in most of the cultures, men just satisfy their needs with women, that's how many babys born in the most poor countries.
And that's why I don't have kids, despite I'm over 30. If you're smart, you can't please yourself with a baby, knowing the facts of your country/society.

Please excuse my terrible redaction, english is not my native language.

[–] mandycw 10 years ago

It boils down to women have no rights. They are subjected to their husband's will. Not all men are animals, mind you, but enough are, even in the "civilized" world.