Save the Planet/Kill The Species

I have heard all kinds of reasons to have an abortion, some sensible other down right dumb, but this one takes the cake in the latter category.

Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy.

But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.

Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.

Not only did she have an abortion, she got sterilized to boot.

Look, if you don't want to have kids, that is fine. But to hear Vernelli describe it, kids are a threat to the planet.

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35.

"Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."

While most parents view their children as the ultimate miracle of nature, Toni seems to see them as a sinister threat to the future.

I am not sure how having children is selfish--not having them is selfish--it places your own happiness above others. Without children, Vernelli clearly does not understand the kind of sacrifice and unselfish nature that comes with parenthood.

Here is the ultimate irony, with a mother so empassioned about saving the planet, it may have been possible that tiny baby Vernelli, aborted those many years ago, may have been the person who saved the planet for Vernelli. Odd.