Wrong logic of saving poor kids from misery

In its October 7 editorial “Give the kids a chance,” the Inquirer once more made its case for the passage of the reproductive health bill. This time it presented the case of Kesz Valdez, the recipient of the International Children’s Peace Prize. Kesz’s story is a truly moving one of how a child who suffered much because of poverty has risen above it because of virtue and determination.

The editorial then makes the connection to the “the sheer number of children brought into this world by parents unable or unequipped to plan their families and thus care properly for their offspring.” Thinking that this fact of the poor bringing into this world children they cannot support is a great social malady, the editorial goes on to say that this is “a situation that obliges the government, particularly lawmakers, to take a long-term, proactive stance in protecting and saving Filipino children (and their mothers) by passing the long-delayed reproductive health bill.”
The assumption is that the RH bill will prevent the poor parents from bringing children they cannot raise well into this world.

But the logic seems to go something like this: save the poor children by preventing them from existing. Now, just think… what kind of logic is that?

Instead, I invite you to look at Kesz. Thank God his parents did not prevent him from being conceived and born, even if they were not capable enough to raise him. So now we have the story of Kesz. The editorial itself ended with his words:

“I pray for the people who will listen to me speak. May I inspire them to do some good for the street children of the world. This is what I want to give to as many street children as possible…. I want children in the streets to get the same chance that I had.”

Kesz would not have had all the chances to do what he did if he first did not have the chance to live, if first he did not exist.

I’m not saying the poor should not plan their families. I’m saying: educate them and let them have the children they want.

—FR. CECILIO L. MAGSINO,

[email protected]