Building A New "Pro-Choice" Movement
Children's Rights Activist Laura Huxley
Believes That "Conscious Parenting" Is the
Key to a Saner, More Compassionate Society

By Eric H. Roth

The designer-label jean bill-board on Sunset Boulevard proclaims, "A child is the ultimate pet'" as a blond, model holds a baby sporting a collar and leash. Thirty demonstrators, led by Laura Huxley, the 82-year-old founder of Our Ultimate Investment Foundation (OUI), counter with placards asserting. "Your child is a wonderful human being" and "Your child is not a pet!"

For Huxley, the widow of novelist Aldous Huxley and longtime children's advocate, the upscale advertising campaign is another instance of commercial propaganda that too often dehumanizes children. It also exemplifies the uncaring, often hostile environment that too many children are born into, where neither families nor society provides a loving atmosphere.

"Do you know what went into creating that billboard?" asks Huxley later during an interview in her Hollywood Hills home. "How much intelligence at the ad agency, how much labor from the workers to put it up. how much paint to make it?
Think of what just a fraction of that money devoted to healthy consciousness could do."

"Healthy consciousness" is one of the cornerstones of OUI. Huxley's Los Angeles-based nonprofit, or-ganization, which is devoted to children's rights and a compassionate society. But in her view, this notion is not a priority of the larger society.

" Just ask people in Western civilization what do they 'believe in," says the soft-spoken Huxley. "Consumerism. That's it. But if life is important, then you prepare for it You cleanse your body, your spirit, your mind, and your relationship. That can't be avoided." As a children's advocate, Huxley focuses on the awesome responsibilities of parents and the consequences of not fulfilling those duties. She believes that the global problems of war, hunger, racism, and environmental destruction are related to the fundamental failure to prepare potential parents for their new obligations. Quoting the African proverb "It takes a whole village to raise a child." Huxley says that the solution rests with "conscious" child-rearing practices. This approach to parenting -will be the focus of a four-day OUI conference later this month.

Love and hate begin in the mother's womb," asserts Huxley, the recipient of the World Health Foundation for Development and Peace's 1990 peace prize. "A dis-traught mother, stressed and upset, sends adrenaline to the body and negatively influences the baby's physical development" A serious examination of parents' lifestyles can prepare and renew them during this period before conception.

Likewise, Huxley says that current scientific research confirms that a calm mother helps a fetus develop in a healthy manner. "Love is literally translated into chemical reactions," she claims. Consequently, Huxley believes that even "war and peace begin in the womb."

Tracing a clear connection between commercial advertising and people's often self-destructive decisions. Huxley criticizes the pervasive media environment that pro-motes unhealthy products. "The advertising companies know exactly how to make consumers out of parents—and babies. They design catalogs so even a baby can say, 'I want this.' What kind of society advertises guns, cigarettes, and alcohol? Of course, their lobbyists say. 'Guns don't kill people' and 'We don't believe cigarettes are addictive.' What kind of madness is this?"

Like her more famous husband, who created the genre known as a "novel of ideas," Huxley systematically dissects a familiar event into distinct pans to reveal a new dimension. "America, basically, calls itself a Christian country," she says. "So [self-proclaimed] Christian parents celebrate the savior of peace by buying toy guns as Christmas gifts for their children."

Pointing to a recent Carnegie Foundation report documenting that the plight of children has dramatically worsened over the last 30 years. Huxley notes the growing disparity between scientific research and practical application of human-development theories, "They (the Carnegie commission] first thought they should [intervene] with teenagers, but they kept lowering the age [for intervention]. They went from fifth-teen to twelve to eight to the first three years of life. "But, according to Huxley, even that is too late to create the optimal conditions for a happy childhood and adult life. "We are committed to the visionary idea that life begins at conception and preparation must begin before conception. "
Returning to an incessant theme of her husband's novels—that global overpopulation will accelerate environmental destruction and the worst tendencies of humanity—Huxley warns of the tremendous material costs of unplanned pregnancies. With global population now exceeding 5.5 billion people, Huxley sees "conscious parenting" as a vital ingredient if "we are to remember that every life is totally unique."

Nearly as ominous for Huxley is the rapid increase in physical and sexual abuse of children in America. "All the statistics are much worse, especially in terms of physical abuse over the last 20 years," she observes. Referring to another recent report "A Quiet Crisis" by the Children's Defense Fund, which concluded that sexual abuse of children under five accounts for one-third of all physical abuse of children. Huxley emphasizes the widespread lack of "respect" and "reverence for life."

"We can go to the moon, but we don't talk to neighbors and we fight our family in the home," she says. Describing child abuse, physical and psychological, as "clearly avoidable human suffering." Huxley returns to the need for "conscious parenting" to benefit society. The quality of these relationships [parent and child] is the essence of our life."
Recognizing the vital interrelationship of nature and nurture, OUI developed an innovative program to deal with teen pregnancies, targeting youth ages eleven to nineteen. "They had to take care of toddlers three or four hours per week for just eight weeks," explains Huxley. "After-wards, they said they wanted to wait to have children until they were 29 or 30 years old. Why doesn' t the school district do this? Kids can't raise kids. Why do we have to do more studies and research?'

Too many teenagers harbor the "illusion" that by having children. They will find love and overcome loneli-ness, or gain status. Yet Huxley stresses mat "you can't love another person until you love yourself." The solution for the out-of-wedlock birth rates, repeats Huxley, is creating a social movement dedicated to conscious parenting.

Every individual should search inside for the answer to the question "Why do I want to have a child?" says Huxley. "Do I want a ballerina because I dreamed of being one, but failed?"

Huxley herself suggests one possi-ble answer—the possibility of creat-ing a saner, more balanced society. I'm 82, so I don't have so many years left to influence the world," she says. "[Young adults] have maybe another 50 or 60 years to contribute. Imagine what their children could accomplish in their long life. They might live to 90 years. They could influence so many people and tilings. Since we might not be able to destroy the gun. tobacco, and alcohol lobbies by next week." laughs Huxley, "we must do whatever little good we can in our own lives and families."

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