I highly recommend to you this article, "A Life Beyond Reason," in which an English professor writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about his severely disabled son and the way that his son's existence has affected his life. It is a moving and intelligent article. A selection:
"Many such well-meaning people would like to put an end to August's suffering, but they do not stop to consider whether he actually is suffering. At times he is uncomfortable, yes, but the only real pain here seems to be the pain of those who cannot bear the thought that people like August exist. For many of those folks, someone with August's caliber of cognitive and physical disability raises the question of where humanity leaves off and animality begins. But that animal-human divide is spurious, a faulty either-or."
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And, since I like to give away the ending: "That is not to deny that August [his son], along with my daughter and my wife, is the most amazing and wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, for he has allowed me an additional opportunity to profoundly love another human being. A person such as Peter Singer well may conclude, reasonably, that I have become overpowered by parental sentiment. So be it. I can live with that. There are limits to reason."
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