http://www.helpmybabylive.com/
I seriously hope this is some kind of cruel, heartless joke. Read through just the main page.
Apparently they won't give the baby up for adoption because the girlfriend can't bear to part with the baby once she's given birth, but if they don't raise $50,000, they'll apparently abort the baby. So they can't part with him/her, but they can end its existence?
I'm in the middle on the whole abortion debate, but this is just seriously beyond screwed up.
I find it pretty amusing. If it is a hoax, it's there to make people ask themselves some moral and ethic questions. Something tells me this is not a cheap trick to earn a quick buck.
After all, they are just, quite pragmatically, expressing a situation that many other people find themselves in. They simply state that while they don't exactly prefer to abort, they are in such a bad financial position that giving the kid a good start in life isn't possible. I think this, so far, is a good reason not to keep the child. If more people considered whether they'll be able to raise their future kids properly, the world would be less miserable.
They said they used birth control but things can screw up. It can happen to the best. And I can certainly see why she'd not prefer to give the child up for adoption.
It's quite an interesting moral dilemma. And it sure has generated a lot of hatred...
I was thinking about this earlier...anybody who's given them money deserves to have been scammed. Serves them right for (1) falling for it and/or (2) financing their idiocy. :P
Seems like a fine idea to me. I say go for it.
If this works, I'm totally knocking my girlfriend up, and asking for $100,000.
From a fast browsing I find it quite awful...
They are holding a kidnapped child (their own) and demand 50,000$ or they'll kill the child. An interesting approach >:(
If it's not true then it's a brilliant scam!
Whether it's real or not, it certainly is unusual. My first reaction was similar to TerranRich's but after reading Andails post it does make sense(although not much). I've never encountered a similar situation.
But to be honest, I wouldn't donate anything to them. When it comes to money I don't trust anyone(thanks life). Especially people like that. They're anonymous and have no credentials. There isn't anything on the site that would make me believe those people. It could just aswell be a scam. Playing the "parents in difficult situation" card is a good way to get money from naive fools.
Right or wrong... This isn't any different than panhandling on the streets. Though if you think about it, this is also ransom (considering an unborn fetus is indeed legally a human being).
Moral dilemma indeed. This is a great downfall of the age of information. Since it's so easy to set up a website and hide behind it, providing an anonymity only thousands of dollars would've provided a mere decade earlier, one can bend the will of so many ignorant, naive, or foolish internet users... True or not, this tactic is ultimately sick, irresponsible, and a great sign of the loss of values, morals, and work ethic (actually earning what you receive) in today's society. I no doubt assume these people are American... Which makes me that much more ashamed, insulted, and ultimately disgusted to be associated with such people.
Whatever happened to dealing with life's problems no matter the circumstance? These people admit they are not destitute, and that they don't need $50,000 to raise a child. But without it, they'd rather just kill him and move on, without any remorse? That rings selfish and cruel to me. You can't justify that. Children can be raised with good values no matter how much their parents earn. It's just silly to think the child won't "turn out right" just because they can't eat out every night anymore.
If you can't be held accountable for the (unlikely with the right precautions) consequences, don't have sex. Simple as that. Abortion is one of many cop out, cure-all solutions popping up in the world. While it's nice to have an easy way out once in a while, it usually is never the best or right solution, either.
So so sad.
edit: And what's sadder is that people WILL donate. You can't play games with someone's life, and that's all this is. True or not, it's all a game to these people. And if they reach 50,000... I hope that one day they'll realize how horrible this really is, and they'll tell their child. He/She deserves to know how close they were to never existing.
Heh. It is not funny at all if this is a joke, but it is so funny (in a tragicomical way) if this is serious.
Well, I am a supporter of the abortion, but this doesn't avoid making me hope this is a joke.
Anıther funny part is how they expose publish the e-mail addresses of the people who sends them hate mails.
http://www.helpmybabylive.com/hate.html
It is slightly strange how these 'parents' definition of hate ranges from
Quoteyou're an asshole! abort the baby and don't get rich off of it and the next time you
decide to fuck realize it might knock the bitch up again!
to
QuotePlease take the time to think about your decision and take responsibility
for your actions. Remember, what goes around comes around.
Peace, love, and Light.
Laura
I'm against abortion as I feel that it is wrong to kill a child, if worst comes to worst then put the poor kid up for adoption, so that it can have a life.
It would take a lot of soul searching for me to muster up even the slightest inkling of sympathy for these people. If they're planning on aborting the baby without a big handout, they may as well just do it. What they're doing is asking people to pay them to have a child. Sure - I'd like people to pay me to have a baby, who wouldn't? Everybody likes free money, but so long as I'm not financially stable enough (and that's a lot of stability for me) to feel like I'm ready to take care of my own child, I see no diapers or papooses in the near future for me, regardless of how much money is donated in my direction.
I don't even think it amounts up to a moral debate - they should abort the baby if they aren't willing to have it without cash donations to back it and refuse to give it up for adoption if they don't abort. That's evidence enough to me that they don't actually want the baby in the first place, and with that kind of doubt and disinterest in your own baby (and even despite the creation of the website and any number of sob-story tactics, it is disinterest) you shouldn't be bringing a child into the world in the first place. I'm not against abortion, I even support it if that's the right choice for the prospective parents, which in this case, I think it is.
Do me a favor and put aside all morals for a second. Then those people are suddenly more like role-models, aren't they?
Imagine everybody in the same situation would do the same, some successfully, some not. In the end, people who can afford it helped poor parents raising their baby while couples who couldn't provide a financially safe environment for raising a child didn't have it.
Plus, a few charities received considerable money. Sounds pretty perfect to me.
And please, all the people who talk about "killing" the child, don't turn this into a debate about abortion. Abortion != killing, at least going by the law of the state the couple lives in (I assume, maybe they're going to do it elsewhere, doesn't matter anyway).
Still, it's probably a scam, and a pretty sophisticated one, I must say.
A controversial topic like this will generate incredible attention and bring tons of visitors to the site. If they indeed got $12,500 already, they'll very likely get the rest of it soon.
The only difference between doing what they're doing and going begging on the streets (as opposed to finding a real solution, ye ken) is that THIS way they're sitting comfortably at home.
Zero sympathy here.
EDIT - Anyway, in their hate mail section they put up, side by side, both the incoherent and blatant offensive emails AND the perfectly sensible ones. If either matter as much to them, maybe they shouldn't have a child - I wonder whether they'd be able to educate him/her properly. (edit 2 - heh, pretty much what Jon said)
I think, that when you're in such a moral position as they "are", relating children to money, they shouldn't even consider getting a baby. It's not like it's an investment. I would never give these people money. God damnit, my mother didn't have 50 000 dollars when she gave birth to 5 children. Frankly the whole idea of balancing a human life and a pile of cash when making decisions that will have effect on peoples lives for as long as they live is utterly disgusting, and for that point, I wish they didn't have the baby. And the way they say they'll never tell the child? Like hiding that they were going to kill him/her if they didn't get money from strangers? I can't relate to such.
Also, what either makes them bad parents or a scam, who on earth calls their to-be-born baby *it*? Like a toy or a piece of metal. However, as a scam, it's bloody funny :D
I think it's a great scam. Anyone who donates, deserves to lose their money. Although at least in their own little place, they blieve they are helping someone. Fantastic.
It's not really that much different from getting an abortion because you can't afford a child. That's what they're doing, but they're also giving people the option to donate if they really care. I'm sure it's probably a scam or something, but the point is, people should stop getting so worked up about it. It's an abortion, they happen all the time when people can't afford to have kids.
Chill out. Unless you're totally anti-abortion, in which case focus your efforts on something a little more worthwhile instead of this one pointless website which isn't even very funny and probably is a hoax.
Why is everyone falling for the whole premise, even here? It's more than likely some dude who just made it all up to scam stupid people. As layabout said, it's a great, if a little obnoxious scam because it relates to peoples' sensibilities about the whole issue. I mean, even the google ads on the page are a dead giveaway.
I could start one like this if I were convinced that the donations wouldn't be traceable in anyway. Sadly, they are. The dude might get away with it scot-free, but there's always a chance of it coming back to bite his ass.
"Even here?" Haha. I think everyone here has said at one point in their post, "But I'm sure it's a hoax". While I'm 80% sure it's fake, the thought that it's for real is pretty scary. Yes, it's a cool idea, if you take it apart like KrisMUC did, and it's cool if anyone who donated feels better about themselves, but if it's for real, I HIGHLY doubt they'll keep the kid one way or the other. 50k is 50k, and a house and a car are STILL a house and a car. Why add another mouth to feed? Not my point of view, but it's a sacm either way I think : pregnant or not.
Crap.
I honestly can't be bothered to care about this. I've tried to forming an opinion but I'm inadvertently distracted by flashy lights - a sure-fire way to know nothing about it fancies my interest :P
Thanks for telling us that you don't have any interest in posting in this thread, Voh :P
Sounds a little like http://www.savetoby.com
But a whole lot more horrible.
I actually think it's very interesting. Especially reading the hate mail they get.
There are basically three kinds of people:
-"It's a scam! How dare you, you lazy #&!%, get a job!"
That's people who get ripped off by big companies for their entire life without even noticing it (just like every other hard-working person), flaming a person they know practically nothing about because they ask for money.
Probably the same people who'd love to donate to charities every now and then if they could afford it just to brag about it and to feel better about themselves.
-"I've raised a child/children and had no/very little/barely any money. You can do it. Blah blah blah ..."
Easy to write, now that they finally sit on their fat asses in paid houses in front of their PCs, after struggling for ten years or more, working their butts off to pay rent and feed their children. Bravo.
-"Don't kill the baby you murderers! A life is worth more than 50k!"
If I had the choice, I'd rather be aborted than grow up in a crappy apartment, constantly overhearing my parents argue about their jobs, the car's latest repair bill (if there even is a car) and all the other stuff that puts down young, struggling parents.
There are all different kinds of people who ruin their kids lifes, be it those assholes that shove their kid on some stage at the age of 5 because they never made it big themselves, or those who beat them, neglect supporting their talents, stuff them with hamburgers although they get fatter and fatter and thus mocked at school and so on.
Yet when somebody wants to (quickly and painlessly) kill an unborn "child", a lump of flesh without conscience, to spare them a miserable childhood, suddenly everybody screams and rants and goes apeshit.
QuoteI'm for pro-life
I'm tired now. And I still think it's probably a hoax.
Apologies, I thought I included a second paragraph but seemingly I didn't.
In addition to my not caring about the thread topic, there is the following. There are those who say it is horrendous (if true) but hilarious and genius (if a scam). I think it's neither horrendous, nor genius, either which way it turns. It's one of thousands of websites trying to get attention, trying to get noticed, possibly make a few bucks off of (or get attention for a problem) and then it'll disappear quicker than it arrived.
The reason why (aha! this is what I definitely shouldn't have forgotten to post) I can't muster any form of interest for such a website is because it's been done so many times that I wonder why others get all riled up over it nonetheless.
Besides, if it's true and that kid gets aborted, what's it going to matter? If it's true and they decide to keep it, what's it going to matter? Nothing. It'll have no result in your life, yet still some of you act as if it's hurting you personally.
If I knew the guy/girl/twat who made such a site I'd kick his ass. Since I don't, I'm going to opt to ignore it and hope that it goes away quickly.
I can't believe there are assholes who donate money to this scammer, what a bunch of retards. ::)
And even if it's true, (wich is not) I would spend my money helping other families who doesnt have 1/10 of what this people is asking to not ABORT his baby, RIDICULOUS!
(lots of hate comments here)
The following Q&A is taken from the FAQ section on www.oddworld.com
Not quite the same situation as with the "parents" but it's also about morals and money. It's the first thing that came to my mind after reading the first post so I thought I'd just share it with you:
Q: In the game I noticed that in the first game Abe and Mudokons have 4 fingers then in Abe's Exoddus they have only 3 fingers. What happened with the 4th finger?
A: Well, it's a long story that needs to be told. So here it is... Japan has a strict discriminating policy against any simulated characters entering their country with four fingers. Historically, Japan has had a subclass of meat packing workers that were typically looked down upon in their society. In later days, the blatant displaying of a four fingered hand gesture, intentionally directed at another, came to mean that you were calling them a member of the meat packing sub class. Which, we understand, was not at all a compliment.
It appears that the four finger connection with the meat packing class was due to work related accidents, but was so frequent that it came to symbolically represent the sub class. It seems as though this is a part of the Japanese history that some groups within Japan would like to see forgotten. Therefore, it is at great risk that you publish four fingered characters in Japan, as you may very likely end up in legal battles with a vociferous pressure group. This group claims that this type of representation is equivalent to and as degrading as the yellow star forced to be worn on Jews by the Nazi's during the Second World War.That is, it's offensive and degrading unless they can extort enough money out of you. Then it's all okay. Case in point: We were told that the Walt Disney Corporation is charged five million dollars a year by this group so that Mickey Mouse may live in Japan and retain his original four fingered design. Otherwise, old Mickey would need to see a surgeon and have something done about that insulting forth finger.
The moral of this story is... if you want to pay, then it's ok. If you don't want to pay, then it's a horrible insult to our culture. In other parts of the world we have a word for these types of two-faced tactics. We call it extortion. If it is truly offensive and degrading, then don't allow it at all. But to allow it for a price... is to belittle the case altogether. It suggests that the real truth behind these groups is that they are using the darker moments in their own cultures' history as an excuse to coerce money out of content providers.
Well, being that this is Oddworld, we felt that this seemed like a perfect addition to the Abe story. We thought it was ironically perfect that he was being discriminated against for being who he was. As the message came from Japan, "They don't like his kind here, with the sincere suggestion," Just chop off one of his fingers cause you don't have the money to pay up..." caused us to feel that we indeed needed to allow Abe to go through the suffering that goes along with being a poor slob at the bottom of the Food chain. Yup, we chopped off his finger so that the Japanese wouldn't get offended (or paid). He didn't like it one bit, but due to the fact that their ain't much he can do about it... we decided that he could donate his finger rather than us donating five million dollars. Such is life in Japan when you're a four-fingered meat packing worker.
And that is how Abe lost his finger in Japan. He's still pretty pissed off about it, but we convinced him that with the amount of games sold in Japan, he still might be able to get his message through to their culture someday. As a true believer in his cause, he felt that the sacrifice of a finger was but a small price to pay in hoping to shed some light on discriminations and injustices the world over.
space boy... WHAT??
It's another example of a situation where money is a factor while it should not be. ¬¬
Too confusing?
space boy's right.
If the shoe was on the other foot:
"Pay me lots of money or I'll abort your baby"
It'd be called extortion.
They did a great job at getting the exact reaction they wanted. It is interesting how willingly people will dump their entire life wrenching stories on someone while lashing out at how horrible they are.
Oh, and for future reference. If the first paragraph has a link to the hate email on a site of this nature for 'entertainment' value... Maybe that should hit an alarm or two in your brain.
Well...
A prank...
Spoiler
MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!
Did anyone actually fall for/believe it?
... You must be new here.. Welcome to the internets...
How unsurprising.
I love when people try their darnest to be smart instead of discussing the moralities of the specific question.
I think most people here said something like "it might be a hoax, but this is what I think of the deal, per see, be it a joke or not, which it probably is, but anyway...", so I don't know who needs to be lectured, really.
It's like every year in the April's fools thread - half of the posters are just hellbent on telling everyone how they didn't fall for it, as if anyone was actually interested.
When I clicked the link just now it said, "Look at what you made me do! There was never a baby, you got fooled, no money was collected. 200,000 people got pranked.
Suck it."
Apparently the joke was up today.
The thing that confuses me: Didn't anyone really donated them? I believe they could collect at least a few bucks...
Heh... This is internet.
By the way; the background image of the website is horrible, indeed. Are they real aborted babies?
Quote from: Gord10 on Thu 19/07/2007 17:32:28
The thing that confuses me: Didn't anyone really donated them? I believe they could collect at least a few bucks...
Heh... This is internet.
By the way; the background image of the website is horrible, indeed. Are they real aborted babies?
Aborted fetuses usually look like bloody beans with limbs or roadkilled frogs, so my guess would be they're stillborn, or aborted way, way too late. These kind of pictures are popular among rallying pro-lifers.
I'm no expert, though.
There are three kinds of gullible people. The ones who get scammed in real life, the ones that get scammed by a TV show, and at the bottom, the ones that get scammed on the internet.
Fortunatly, this wasn't a scam, mearly a prank. Although one that proves that there are alot of stupid people on the internet.
Also, abortion sucks. But it's sometimes better than to bring an unwanted child into the world in an area that has low amounts of adopting people. It largely depends on the situation.
- Huw
EDIT: Abortion arguements are alot easier to argue about if you use a proxy arguement. The "Too Posh To Push" arguement is a good one - Caesarian sections chosen by rich women who just couldn't be bothered to go through labour. Caesarian sections save lives - like my sisters. But they are also open to abuse by arrogant rich people. Does that mean that we shouldn't allow sections, as they could be open to abuse? Or do we allow sections and grin and bear it?
Bear in mind, abortions are generally only used by truly desperate single mothers, or as a sort of euthanasia on unborn children that have very bad mental/physical defects.
Oh, and HillBilly, you probably have put me clean off all food for the rest of my life. >_<