Should people struggling with mental illness have children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Man, this is a tough one. My xH disclosed to me AFTER we had DD that schizophrenia runs in his family and it's likely DD will end up with it.

I was furious, bc I had I known back then, I probably would not have had a child with him. But I love DD so much and can't imagine live without hey, so I'm so glad she's here and wouldn't change that.

I also wouldn't want anyone telling my DD she shouldn't have children, I want her to make that decision on her own.

That is statistically inaccurate. In the situation where your husband does not have schizophrenia and you don’t either odds of having a kid with schizophrenia are very rarely above 10% if there is only family history on one side. Most likely that your daughter won’t have schizophrenia and that your grandkids won’t either. Your husband doesn’t understand statistics well.

DP. Those numbers matter, but what also matters is the posters ability to deal with the stress of knowing that her child has a 1-10% of having a serious mental illness and spending her life holding her breath waiting to see if that will be the case. She decided that would be too much for her and knew her limit. That must not have been an easy or even fair choice for her. I would never judge someone in that position until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

That is a fair point. I was just mentioning the actual odds because I think many people would assume family history for schizophrenia (among non-parent family members) provides a much larger risk increase than it actually does.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe this is a topic that has been allowed to go on this long. This is probably the most discriminatory post I've seen here. People have kids without being able to afford them and they die from sickness. Dying themselves days after conception. Addicted. In jail. Corrupting youth. Sexually abusing them. There are very few people with major illnesses that have children anyway. This is so not an issue compared to all the other worthless parents out there. They are dealing with so many things that others have no concept of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe this is a topic that has been allowed to go on this long. This is probably the most discriminatory post I've seen here. People have kids without being able to afford them and they die from sickness. Dying themselves days after conception. Addicted. In jail. Corrupting youth. Sexually abusing them. There are very few people with major illnesses that have children anyway. This is so not an issue compared to all the other worthless parents out there. They are dealing with so many things that others have no concept of.

You are being judgemental to people who are having a meaningful discussion about family planning decisions. The interesting thing is that it is generally the people who don’t have personal experience with family history of a severe disease that are more supportive of genetic considerations for family planning decisions. The people with a family history of schizophrenia, or Huntington’s disease, sickle cell disease are largely very supportive of genetic screening to prevent their kids from suffering from these diseases. Even the people who have these diseases are largely unbothered by the moralistic hysteria about “discrimination”. They just want their kids to be healthy and not struggle with the diseases that they have themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe this is a topic that has been allowed to go on this long. This is probably the most discriminatory post I've seen here. People have kids without being able to afford them and they die from sickness. Dying themselves days after conception. Addicted. In jail. Corrupting youth. Sexually abusing them. There are very few people with major illnesses that have children anyway. This is so not an issue compared to all the other worthless parents out there. They are dealing with so many things that others have no concept of.

Lots of people think those folks shouldn’t have children either. The question isn’t whether the government should forcibly sterilize people with serious mental illnesses. The question is whether people with serious mental illnesses should choose to have and raise children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to your thoughts on this issue.

No.