The article is poorly written. She had little regard for the readers when writing it, still, I think they're valid points.

So many people just pop out the kids without looking at the genetic makeup they'll have.. it angers me.. it's so selfish for those poor children that have to live the rest of their lives sometimes, as ticking timebombs for all sorts of diseases.

And I agree with some of the comments.. things are a little TOO PC now... if someone has a mental illness and could be dangerous, you do keep a natural distance.. sometimes you do have to be careful of things like that..

Unfortunately, people who have children pass down the characteristics of being flawed, imperfect, otherwise subject to making mistakes and being too thick to realise it. So if all the people with flaws stopped having children, our species would become extinct. Ah, the trials of being human...

The quote is so very true. There's no reason to create more people to begin with, less so kids with mental disorders, when we can just adopt kids that need parents anyway. It's not fun to have a mental disorder, it's generally not fun to have someone with mental disorders in your life. Predisposing children to mental disorders _is_ just cruel. Get over it, you pussies!

-Shawn with Aspergers Syndrome.

@53, Dan

Lol, spot the WoW player :P

@Kate pretty sure the SS wiped out the brownshirts......... its a student magazine.... its a joke... all you people need to get a life. shouldn't you all be in a fine arts lecture right about now?

these leading mental health experts obviously don't have jobs if all they do is troll through piles of magazines looking for articles to argue about

To Emmalean: So you're saying Gingers, Engineers and Fine Arts Students have less rights than those with Mental Illnesses and are open game for insults? That's a load of BS! I belong to three out of the four categories and guess which one I get the least stigma and crap treatment for? .. Yip, it's my mental health.

I say either you can't make jokes about any group or you have to be able to joke about them all, and I favour the latter choice rather than going down PC lane. Sure some people make jokes with an intent or prejudice behind them (sometimes with them not being overtly aware of it) but most don't and those who are prejudiced aren't likely to change or stop joking anyway so why should everyone else suffer from PCism gone wild. Instead it's the behaviour and conversations we need to affect change upon and see to it prejudices aren't passed on but rather left to die out.

i don't know what to laugh at more, the fact that Deborah has made it onto stuff.co.nz for her views, or that people actually take her articles seriously! This brings on the "lols".

oh god. ok, so maybe they shouldn't!! but then we could say that about fat people... the list could go on. People have the right to be able to do what they want, its called a free world PEOPLE!! this sorta article just makes us take a huge step back to how we were about 10 years ago....

It doesn't really matter if her article wasn't meant to be taken seriously, that's not the point. Her past ones about gingers and eng vs. fine arts students obviously weren't serious - but cracking jokes about the mental health adverts and those with mental illnesses - thats a bit more insulting / inappropriate... isn't it?! yes mental health experts are "smarter than this" but that doesn't meant that the intended audience still wont be offended by this. Deborah's just too self-centered to figure that.

PS Good luck adopting in New Zealand - too many couple, not enough babies up for adoption.