So the question is less about abortion but about the rights of parents who want to murder a child whom they believe will not be worthy of their care. We have to ask ourselves whether we want to be the kind of society that puts legislation in place to make such decisions easy to make. As we are all aware, there are plenty of folks who strangle their female newborns, who burn dowry-challenged brides, who behead children as part of black magic rites. But none of these actions have legal sanction.

I don’t know what percentage of those who participated in the CNN IBN poll were young couples on the brink of parenthood, but it seems very likely that such people would be especially sympathetic towards the Mehtas. The heightened life-expectations of urban couples combined with the loss of traditional joint families make the lives of young parents especially unenviable, whether or not they have “normal” children.

Much has been made about the drastically reduced quality-of-life awaiting the Mehtas if their child is severely impaired. But just yesterday, on e-mail, I read an astounding story complete with pictures, about a 21-year-old called Naga Naresh Karutura from Teeparru, in Andhra Pradesh. He suffered an accident in 1993 that resulted in both his legs being amputated at the hip. His parents were poor and illiterate, but they didn’t give up on him. Many small miracles later, Naga Naresh is an IIT Madras graduate with a job with Google, Bangalore. It may sound like just another web-fairytale - but there he is, sitting on a smart black wheelchair, smiling into the camera and telling us that he considers himself extremely lucky. And so he is: he has loving parents who didn’t discard him the moment they realised he would be a life-long burden upon them.

... contd.