(no subject)

[gothwalk]

I've just spoken to a doctor from the clinic where I'm getting the vasectomy done. She's agreed to do it, but she also tried to talk me out of it on the basis that I'm too young.

I don't understand this reasoning. At 25, I'm old enough to vote, drink, own a gun, drive a car, and, get this one, old enough to decide to have kids. Or, indeed, have six of them already. But I can't decide not to? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that having kids was more of a decision than not having them. More life-changing, more expensive, more of a strain on an already over-strained planet?

<offensive>Goddamn Catholics.</offensive>

Comments

[kajivar]

I'm a member of childfree, and every week someone posts something just like your message. Many doctors refuse to perform sterilization surgery on people in their 20s or 30s. So many people think the meaning of life is procreation and have a hard time accepting people who don't want to have children. I don't, and hundreds of "You'll change your mind when you get older" won't change that.

...

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, oddly enough it's the actual process of getting older that tends to make those changes rather than the sermonising.

Re: ...

[kajivar]

And some people figure out at a younger age that the process of getting older won't change their minds either.

Re: ...

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

You can say, with absolute certainty, that you will never change your mind? Wow....
A lot of things I knew five years ago have been proven to be crap. Five years from now I confidently expect to think I was full of crap right now.

It sounds wierd that you couldn't learn from, or change as a result of your experiences (or even biological imperatives)

Re: ...

[kajivar]

I know I don't want kids. I've known pretty much all of my adult life. I have many reasons for it, and time won't change them.

Some people just know. And it's not nice to mock them for that knowledge.

[ziyakr.livejournal.com]

And they often refuse (as in my case) even when there are medical reasons for procedures that would cause one to be sterile (since I don't think a hysterectomy is officially a sterilization procedure). I've known for 2/3rds of my life that I could not have children and have never wanted them, for much of that time I have also wanted to have my uterus removed (haven't managed it yet).

Hope you don't get any more grief, Drew. It's your decision and, well-intentioned or not, you had reached a stage where the doctor did not need to question you. Seems she decided to do so for "moral" reasons.