An on-target post from Amanda:
In terms of actual use, hormonal contraception reminds me most of insulin. Insulin was invented to deal with an inborn medical issue that could, in theory, be controlled through abstemious behavior. But in real world terms, abstaining from eating all but a bit of meat here and there was not workable and was also a huge quality of life issue. It’s eventually fatal for a lot of diabetics, even if they do follow the strict diet, but it’s also noteworthy that repeated child-bearing isn’t so good for your health, either, and has been fatal in the past. But even if diabetes wasn’t life-threatening, I doubt anyone would actually begrudge diabetics their insulin, or begrudge them the drastic improvement to their quality of life, even just because they can eat more food and more varieties of food. If you suggested to a diabetic that eating a sandwich was wildly irresponsible, as if they aren’t demonstrating responsibility by measuring their blood sugar and dosing themselves with insulin, you’d rightly be called an asshole. And probably crazy.
There are other things going on keeping us from the keyboard. Armand hosting out of town guests, Baltar filling in for a colleague with a family emergency, and me both with an out-of_town guest and a disgusting broken washing machine which I have spent the last hour bailing/siphoning of its pungent contents in preparation for the nice delivery people from Lowes for which I am also clearning all the shit (figuratively speaking) blocking the doors in the basement and am about to go outside to clear the shit (real, dog variety) in the yard blocking the path to the basement doors.
Have a nice weekend, folks.
Posted by binky at October 14, 2006 03:46 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Reproductive Autonomy