The Toronto Star reports that, following their home waterbirth, Witterick, 38, and her husband, David Stocker, 39, sent a simple email to everyone in their social network, explaining that they planned to keep their child’s biological sex a secret. Only six people — apart from Storm — know the child’s biological sex: the parents, his or her two brothers Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, and the two midwives present at the baby’s birth.
“We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place? …),” the Toronto-based couple wrote.
At only 4 months old, Storm has already lived up to his or her name, birthing a tempest of controversy. The story has made international headlines, was featured on “Today” and “The View” … [recently] and has spurred ethical debates throughout the parenting blogosphere.
It is actually impossible to raise anyone genderless. There is the outward biological fact, the mental/hormonal fact, and the subtle unspoken unknowable ways all people interact with the different sexes, both at home and in the wider world.
Every time I think I have heard the latest bizarrete, I am always surprised that something even more ridiculous has come along. The implication is that they are going to raise this unfortunate as gender neutral so that it has no gender role or model to follow. This is so silly, so harmful, so distant from reality, the child needs to be proteted from his parents. Or her parents. Or its parents. Larry
Social services are wont to remove children from biological parents for less …
[i]Every time I think I have heard the latest bizarrete, I am always surprised that something even more ridiculous has come along[/i]
But you see what mankind can do when it is not tethered to God? If the father were to discipline this child harshly in public, the child might be taken away from him by the state. But raise the child genderless? Not a peep.
What have the [Christian?] churches in the Toronto area said about this? Again, not a peep?
The Church lost its voice, and lost its authority, to speak to these perversions, when the Church tossed out the authority of Holy Scripture. We will see more and more of this as time goes on until we have descended to the very steps of Hell; and in that descent, no doubt those who hold onto the Bible will be mocked, ridiculed, and perhaps persecuted for getting in the way of the march.
Only one person can save us from this; Jesus Christ.
Indeed, the church has lost both its voice and its authority, at least this is true at TEC. Find a church with an authoritative voice, then go and listen and follow the authority. It will be a good thing for your children and for your family. Leave these heretics to themselves. They will regret this all in time. Too bad.
So, you’re going to raise a child “gender-neutral” who is NOT “gender-neutral”. Oxymoronic, don’t you think?
One for the ethicists, too–is it actually child abuse to turn your children(including the “secret-keeping” siblings in this case) into social experiments?