Modifying Babies

Babies of all species are almost universally adored. Show off any baby... a puppy, a kitten, any wild animal, but mostly human babies, and expect a chorus of oooohs and aaaahs.

We love them. But why do we so often want to modify them?

Many dog owners will trim their puppy's ears or tail, to conform to a certain standard "look" for the breed. And, spay and neuter is the battle cry of animal lovers around the globe. Imagine being a dog. and hearing. 'I love you so much I am going to neuter you.'

But, much more frequent is the modifying of human babies.

Many primitive tribes punched a hole in their baby's nose bridge, or ear lobe, and inserted a small round bone. When the child healed, they replaced the bone with a larger bone. This process was repeated until the earlobe, or the nose bridge, was grotesquely elongated. Some even did that to their lower lip! Today we just use little gold rings...maybe even with a diamond!

For centuries, the Chinese bound a baby girl's feet to keep them from growing. They wanted their ladies to have tiny feet.

In parts of the Muslim world, a common practice, to this day, is to surgically remove the clitoris from a little girl's vulva. We call that genital mutilation. We call it barbaric.

A more common practice, started by the Jews, is circumcision. As soon as a baby boy is born, a Rabbi lops the foreskin off his tiny penis. Some say the practice was to discourage masturbation . Some say it was a matter of hygiene. (Whatever happened to soap and water?) Some say it was a religious practice. Today, in the western world, Jew or Christian, a boy can expect to lose his foreskin before he ever leaves the hospital nursery.

It is an age old practice that most likely will continue. Love your baby. Just modify it.

And, I won't even go into abortion, which says, "Before you deliver your baby, If you think you won't like him or her, just kill it."