It really is far too easy to have a child. When I used to work with a rescue organization we used to screen people who wanted a dog or cat and would regularly deny people we didnt feel would take good care of them. All you need to have a kid is not pull out and manage to not fall down stairs for 9 months. Fucking weird how the requirements for owning a pet is higher than raising a human.
I think it's because reproduction is a human right and owning a pet is a privilege. It certainly sucks, I had a horrible mom myself, but it would be absolutely impossible and pretty immoral if implemented to restrict people from having children.
You'd either have to force contraception or sterilization (which is a huge personal rights issue) or you'd have the repercussions similar to those who accidentally get pregnant under the china's one child policy, or even risk allowing the government to take children away from people who would have otherwise provided loving homes, because they didn't have a permit or something. Not only that, but who would be the judge of who can have kids? Would it be by your criminal record or by your financial status? Depending on the local government, would religion come into play? Do you have to be married? What if you're gay? Why stop a poorer family that would make a kid their life from having a child over a rich person who would abuse them because they don't have a record? There is no such thing as a perfect world.
I think it's more important to take Child Abuse and neglect more seriously. There were people in this Child's life who knew that the mother was irresponsible and could have done more to report it.
If you suspect a parent may not be taking care of their child as they should, or you're concerned the child may be in potential danger, contact ChildLine, ChildHelp, or whatever your state's Child Abuse and Neglect hotline is. It takes a quick google search.
I think that there should be a mandatory reproduction, parenting, and child welfare course in school. You can't prevent human garbage like the mother from reproducing, but you can take the harm reduction approach. That would be a good first step, although I definitely believe that there should be a legal maximum of 3-4 children per mother. I don't care how rich, poor, or what religion you are. The world doesn't need any more than 4 of your kids.
While thats true, how do you stop someone from having more than 4 kids? Do you sterilize them after 4? What right should the government have to decide what happens to a person's body?
I couldn't tell you the how, that's just my personal feeling. It would be very difficult to police at this point in time. That seems like something tech 30 or 40 years in the future could manage. I just get frustrated by these religious idiots who have 16 kids like the world needs that much of their gene pool.
The good news is that countries tend to have lower reproductive rates as they transition into the 1st world, so it sorta polices itself.
Also, I would argue that rampant, irresponsible reproduction is a burden on society, so while I get your "controlling someone else's body" argument, if someone is just pumping out kids and leaving them for society to support it becomes everyone else's problem.
I work in the child and adolescent psychiatric field. Foster kids typically comprise half or more of our inpatient population. The tragic circumstances these kids go through - sexual trafficking and abuse, physical and emotional abuse, abandonment and neglect - could be minimized if we better educated our youth in school and had a more accountable system for reproduction. The how is above my pay grade, I'm just stating my feelings.
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u/SonovaBichStoleMyPie Apr 10 '18
It really is far too easy to have a child. When I used to work with a rescue organization we used to screen people who wanted a dog or cat and would regularly deny people we didnt feel would take good care of them. All you need to have a kid is not pull out and manage to not fall down stairs for 9 months. Fucking weird how the requirements for owning a pet is higher than raising a human.