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Is Margret Atwood’s “A Handmaid’s Tale” Soon To Be Reality In The United Kingdom??
In Canadian author Margret Atwood’s 1990 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” she describes a period sometime in the future following nuclear war where a totalitarian theocratic government is in place in a country called Gilead, that has replaced the United States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples who have trouble conceiving.
Recently an article appeared in the British publication the Daily Mail reporting the virtues and reasons as proposed by a government official, the Minister of State for Public Health, to justify radical birth control for British teens. Although this is an idea being fomented in the UK it is not beyond the realm of possibility the abstraction could find life here across the pond. Remember the Beatles and Carnaby Street imports of the 1960s?According to the British newspaper government minister Dawn Primarolo., suggests
teenage girls be steered towards “long-term contraception”. In other words Primarolo wants the young females to be sterilized via a patch or injection oof depoprivara for five years. She wants this done to reduce the high number of incidents of teen pregnancy. Columnist Fay Weldon of the Daily Mail when writing on this subject says teenage Brits have the distinction a “teenage pregnancy rate, so high in this country it makes us a disgrace among the nations – the worst offenders in Europe.”
There are some among us who believe this radical contraception will be an encouragement to young girls to be fearlessly promiscuous. The fact is many of them are already sexually active in a recreational sense; many beginning at age 10 or 12 because there is nothing else for them to do or their hormones compell them to do what everyone says they should not do without bothering to explain the thins that can happen, the consequences, not just pregnancy or disease, of being sexually active at such an early age. Things adults no longer consider because children are not our priority; things like healthy mental and proper physical development.
As we continue down the slippery slope toward the inability to distinguish science fiction from reality we can see how it would be possible in the future to experience
Atwood’s fictional nation of Gilead with its handmaids to bear children for the wealthy as our future reality.
It all begins with what is considered by a few to be a seemingly harmless and good proposition to provide for at first, five years then extended years, perpetual contraception for young girls until the population is under control. Then one day we realize the the population has been controlled to the point of near extinction. We must rely on our leaders, the elite of our society to procreate and follow the directive to “be fruitful and multiply”. Can you imagine George Bush being one of the leaders to have a handmaid to provide his progeny?
What is needed is not contraception, but compassion, education and understanding. Extending compassion in all the areas that contribute to the nurturing of young males and females is imperative. Educating them as to how their bodies work along with teaching them to respect their bodies and the bodies of others is an important lesson. Explaining the importance of honoring themselves and to understand that despite what they tell us, even though they are 18 or 19, because scientists tell us humans are not fully grown until about age 25, they need guidance from responsible adults. We are the responsible adults they rely upon. We must value our children.
The children are our future.
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