Open Letter - 7

Dear Society,

How have you been this week? Mine has been the same as everybody else’s and I am sure so was yours. I am writing this letter to tell you that I underwent a Nuchal Translucency scan last week. I must admit it was an all-new experience to visit a hospital so deserted and dull with no trace of life.

When I had my first abdominal scan, the same hospital was so full of life that one would wonder if it represented a mini colony within its compound walls. That day I felt elated with boundless joy on hearing the tender heart-beat of my child. This week however, in correspondence to the atmosphere built outside, this particular NT scan, as they call it, was supposedly meant to analyse the thinking capabilities of the unborn.

I underwent the scan earlier last week but the reports took so long. Throughout the week I was pestered with the same pressing question; What if the scan confirms my child has comparatively lesser thinking capabilities than other kids?

A basic discussion with friends and family told me that this scan identifies if a child is normal. Besides worrying about my child, I kept thinking what constitutes the word 'normal'.

Dear society, are there any limitations of normality? If yes, then who drew those boundaries? What makes a child abnormal? Your standards are mostly so rigid and uncompromising that most of the children do not fit in them. They gradually yield to your pressure and though they suffer within, they try to project only what seems to fit your standards.

When it comes to the term normal, I would like you to understand that if a guy doesn’t get attracted to a girl, you can still call him normal. If a girl doesn’t want to look beautiful, you can still call her normal. If a child doesn’t love to play, you can still call it normal. Similarly, if someone doesn’t prescribe to your level of thinking capabilities, you can still call them normal. Because, being normal is being oneself. It is the beauty of projecting all that one has to the world. With your taste for normalcy and abnormality, you are suppressing that dominant characteristics of an individual. And if it happens to be an embryo, they do not even get to see the world they are meant to win over.

Advancements in technology, however fascinating they seem, should work towards developing a progressive culture. We do not need a technology that reinstates the law of the jungle. You should be proud of all the chaos that you so magnificently balance with compassion and empathy. A progressive society is one that accepts the least capable on par with the most capable with no bias.

By trying to establish an ideal culture, you are hitting at the root of your existence, which is diversity.

My report showed that my child meets your standards of normal mental capabilities but I am not writing this letter to tell you that. I am writing this letter to assure you that even if the report said otherwise, I would not have let go of my child. Handicap, be it mental or physical does not deny an individual’s right to life and I stand by that.

If you say you are saving them from all the difficulties ahead, I must remind you that it is similar to denying reproduction rights to the poor in the pretext of saving their children the burden of living in poverty.

I hope my words make sense to your not-so-sensible mind. If not, I advise you to get an NT done to yourself to see if you are capable of giving birth to a progressive and rational tomorrow.

Do reply me with your views on the stand I took on this issue. I will be eagerly waiting for your reply.

Yours determinedly,

An Expecting Mother.