Reborn Babies: Pandering to a Mental Disorder

Some people are not content with normal dolls.  Some people want dolls that are as close to the real thing as possible without actually being a real baby.  To be more precise, they would probably prefer a real baby but settle for a realistic looking doll as the next best thing.  The dolls in question are called reborn baby dolls, and the people who make them are artists.  A toy maker is an artist too, but we call him a toymaker.  Likewise, a doll maker is a specific kind of toymaker and, thusly, also an artist.  But, the people who make reborn baby dolls are not toy makers.  They are, simply, artists.  They don’t make toys and they don’t make toy dolls.  They create works of art and sell them to people, people who seem to treasure them beyond the normal happiness a toy gives to a person.  The BBC did a report on the dolls and the people who buy them.  The dolls themselves are borderline interesting, but the people who buy them, although they would deny it, have emotional problems.  They take their dolls for pram walks and hold them just as if they were real babies.  Some of them even have dedicated cribs and rooms for their baby dolls.  They check up on them in the night, they schedule time to be with them.  In short, their devotion is completely abnormal.  I may sound like I’m mocking these people, but I’m not.  Whatever happened to them in their past, to make them latch so strongly onto a lifeless object, must have been serious.  But, whatever they want to believe, it is not healthy.  

Watch this video and you’ll see what I’m talking about:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzEqYhUZAoc 

The Artists:    

I’m not going to deny that the people who come up with ever more fascinating strains of marijuana are great botanists.  But, however great their skill is, I have to disagree with their decision to misappropriate a skill that could have otherwise been put to better use.  Yes, yes, marijuana is a medicine.  Still, with all the other herbal and plant based remedies that need investigating, marijuana cultivation seems a bit self serving.  About the reborn baby artists: Skillful? Yes.  Exploiting a market?  Absolutely!  They know there is a market for these dolls just like the marijuana grower knows he is never going to be put out of business by market forces (although the DEA might be a different matter).  To be completely honest, I don’t blame the marijuana grower and I don’t blame the doll maker.  It’s the people who use the product who determine the direction of a free market.  Nevertheless, and even though I believe it would be my right, I would not grow marijuana, and I would not make reborn baby dolls, and it’s for one reason that I would abstain; I do not want to be the facilitator of a destructive behavior.  That is a personal, libertarian choice of mine. The ultimate responsibility for the unhealthy behavior lies squarely on the shoulders of the people buying the dolls, and the drugs.  The drug user needs intervention, and the needy doll ladies need intervention.    

What do you Think?     

Are reborn baby dolls an unhealthy escape from reality in the same way marijuana temporarily causes people to forget their problems?  Or, is marijuana legitimately a medicine in the same way these dolls legitimately help their owners cope with deep mental stresses?  Or are the two not comparable?  It has been established that certain mental illnesses are just as real as any physical pain.  Marijuana does not actually cure any disease; it simply relieves pain.  Reborn baby dolls do not heal mental wounds; they just relieve pain.  Is that a good enough reason for needy people to lean on them?  Or is the escape more damaging than the ailment?