Our devaluation of life continues...

Found this via the Curt Jester;

WASHINGTON - Many people like to stop and play with newborn babies, but now some adult women are playing house with fake babies.

Some women are even going as far as taking day trips with the fake babies to the park, out to eat, and even hosting birthday parties for them.

Forty-nine-year-old Linda is married with no children of her own. Now, she says she feels like a mother because she has Reborns -- dolls made to look and feel like the real thing.

"It's not a crazy habit, like, you know, drinking, or some sort of, something that's going to hurt you. It's like a hobby.and it doesn't really hurt anybody," Linda said. These women are paying big bucks for this hobby, from $100 to a few thousand dollars. For Reborn owner Lachelle Moore, the fake babies fill a void.

"What's so wonderful about Reborns is that, um, they're forever babies," said Moore, who has grown children and grandchildren. "There's no college tuition, no dirty diapers... just the good part of motherhood," she added.

In her Kansas City home, Moore even has an elaborate room for the dolls. She organizes birthday parties, bakes a cake and even invites guests.

Psychologists say there could be a problem if and when these women stop interacting socially with others in their life.

Saying this is sick is stating the obvious. What is truly sick is the implied acceptance of the practice, in a sane world these women would be strongly urged to seek professional help ASAP.

The War Department and I recently rented "Lars and the Real Girl", a flick about an introvert who gets so lonely he buys an inflate-a-mate and tries passing her off to the world at large as his fiancee. How the folk around him act and his gradual evolvement are the points of the movie. It seemed fairly entertaining, in part because it was (supposedly) so outlandish.

Guess it was just art imitating life.

IMHO this sort of thing and the acceptance it enjoys are the byproducts of our present culture's devaluation of life. Who needs a real baby with all the dirty diapers, snotty noses and late night wakeup calls when you can have a lookalike that just lets you cuddle to your heart's content?

If you think I'm stretching things a bit with the analysis, there was a recent story about a current fad in Japan where robotic dolls are used to substitute for significant others. The whole topic was so distasteful I just glanced at the headlines, other bloggers have made reference to it though and evidently these things are basically robotic inflate-a-mates. I really don't want to go much further, humping blowup dolls always struck me as perverted.

But the point of referencing that item is that the devaluation of human life is worldwide, not just in the West. Some would say it's always been held cheaply, look at how the Japanese behaved in Nanking during WWII, the Germans with the death camps, etc.

The problem with that is the lives held cheaply were always those of "others". Someone not a part of "us", they would be Jews, homosexuals, folks of a different nation, etc. In the present day devaluation we're seeing the "others" are contained within the general population. They're either the very young (aborted children), the very old/terminally ill (euthanasia), soon they'll be the severely handicapped.

In other Western countries it's gone from being optional to seek death for those whose lives inconvenience us, it's now being touted as a "duty". An example of that is here (h/t Curt Jester) ; http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Doctors-who-refuse-euthanasia-39wicked39.4845993.jp

Admittedly this is just one dingbat voicing her opinion, but read the entire article. Especially where it gives the result of a vote amongst the audience. 22 members thought laws in the UK prohibiting euthanasia should be changed, 35 didn't.

22 out of 35 is fairly sizable. Wanna bet the percentage will increase over the years as our culture keeps sliding downhill?

So where do we go from here? Hell if I know, all those of us in the prolife corner can do is keep on fighting and hope for the best.

In the meantime, if you're old it doesn't pay to get sick and if you're pregnant be prepared to resist any "suggestions" about aborting a child with the likelihood of a birth defect.

If you're lonely get active in a church and pray a lot. Praying led me to the War Department, so I know it works. After almost eleven years and three kids I can say the aggravations, dirty diapers, snotty noses, etc are worth it. Every damned bit of it.

I wouldn't trade our kids either (and after THAT little comment I'll be moving back here!)