To Have Children (The Worst Policy)
by Siok Khoon

It struck me hard when Ray remarked that many governments' efforts to encourage the birth of more children is the worst policy. If giving birth to a child weaker than parents constitutes the highest child abuse, this policy which is blind to evolution, is the worst policy from ALL perspectives.

While we have one group of policy makers digging their heads for measures to encourage birth; we have another group, trying to solve problems that this policy has brought about. And no one has put the two groups together and see that the former is the direct cause of the latter. We continue to celebrate the success of this policy, oblivious of the nightmares it has created.

Nature does indeed prevent tragedy. When babies should not be born because they are unfit, nature gives us signals, and it's easy to see, because it is epidemic. Women have irregular menses, they encounter all kinds of difficulty conceiving and/or delivering, men have low sperm count..., and how did we solve this problem? We override nature with Viagra, test-tube babies, fertility pills and clinics etc., and so, children disqualified by nature are saved by doctors, and the results are unthinkable.

We have lots of weaklings and addicts. It is very costly to maintain, counter-productive, society suffers and we all pay. Emergency treatments are wanted everywhere. More and more Children's Hospitals have to be built. Charity shows have to get on a bigger scale. And at the personal level, these weak babies are destined to a lifetime of suffering, failure and disappointment. Is this not the original child abuse?

I am beginning to understand and appreciate what Ray and Shelton are teaching, that life is a wild-goose chase if we do not learn to address the root cause of our problems. All of our life, we have been educated that when you have a problem, treat the symptoms, and so we deduce that when symptoms disappear, we would be successful. That is why we look up to the emergency branch of medicine that performs such miraculous feats. Consider for a moment, the many women who would have been dead, if not of the Caesarian, and all kinds of emergency measures during their pregnancy; and they all walked away, thanking the doctors, but still unaware that a tragedy has been born. What a dangerous illusion.

Understanding the situation as I now do, I see that the best policy is to prevent such a tragedy from happening, and I would rather spend time teaching mothers how to prepare vegetarian dishes, or to bring children out to play in the sun. This is not a trivial, but a very, very important work. It may be a baby step, but it surely is the most 'emergency' work, reversing humanity's worst policy to the best.

And if you share this mission, help us. The future of Singapore is yours.

Help us get this important message out to people who want to have happy children, to educate that having a baby is not a matter of luck. Praying and accumulating merits, working hard for the best doctor and the best treatment are not the answer. The answer is to make ourselves qualified first, as a human being, healthy, free, independent and strong.

Help us get this message to the policy makers to build a society that will us hold us together.

Help us get this message to everyone, because it is where it belongs.

All the very best,
Siok khoon
Apr 11, 2005, Singapore