Just when you think people can be any more stupid....

[Umbran]

To be truly macabre about it - in this case sterilization is unnecessary. They failed to bring the baby up to breeding age, so their genes won't continue...

 

[Henry]

"Not being familiar with motorvehicles of any kind he had first attempted to open the door by lowering the handbrake, switching the gear to one, turning the ignition key, and then continuing with switching gears, leading ultimately to the high speed he exited the highway with."

"In other news today, a monkey was found chattering wildly and waving around a copy of The Taming of the Shrew, covered with feces and heavily crumpled, after the monkey was given a typewriter the night before."

 

[Warrior Poet]

"In other news today, a monkey was found chattering wildly and waving around a copy of The Taming of the Shrew, covered with feces and heavily crumpled, after the monkey was given a typewriter the night before."

Once again it's time for my favorite quote ever about the Internet:

"The Internet is proof that a million monkeys with a million typewriters will NOT produce the works of Shakespeare."

I just wish I knew who said it. May have seen it on these boards, actually . . . .

Warrior Poet

Edit: the pronoun "it" is spelled "i" "t", not "i" "n".

 

[Henry]

Mind you, that's a hell of a setting for an SF story... The back street clinics who provide illegal unsterilising operations. The fertility police who monitor unlicensed couples...

The Wardens of Gaia sounds like a good name...

for signs of pregnancy, and who swoop in with compulsory abortions

"corrective surgery"

when necessary. The judges who rule on applications for parenting licenses,

"Chronos Department Judges", or "Chronos Judge" - has a mythical ring to it.

and the boards who determine what the criteria they should use are

Social Planning Panel.

If you write this, I want a "thanks" in the credits!

 

[Jdvn1]

... Wow, that's a crazy article. I wonder if the parents regularly got the baby drunk or something...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Sick!

 

[sniffles]

....why can't we just sterlize people who do this?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10259705/

Personally, I would have liked to sterilize them before they had a baby.

 

[billd91]

I was trying to find the angle that I'm not seeing (huh?) on this story, but in the end I think I'm siding more with Cthulhu's Librarian. I'm not an advocate of sterilization or systematic testing for "good parenthood," but it's hard to see how this was an "honest mistake." There are adult alcoholics on benders that don't have a .47 blood alcohol level. How could they not know? Pure stupidity? Possible. Willful sociopathy? Also possible. God, what an awful tragedy. I'm calling my folks tonight and thanking them for being good parents.

Warrior Poet

Trouble is, they might have truly thought the amount of alcohol was reasonably harmless. Most people have no idea how efficient a baby's liver is (a question of ignorance rather than supidity). And not everyone thinks about relative body weight when it comes to the effects of alcohol either, compounding the issue. They probably thought "Oh, that's not too much. Wouldn't affect me in the slightest, shouldn't hurt the baby."

Well, they were wrong and the baby paid the price. They probably feel awful about it. I'd hate to be in a position where I was the cause of my own baby's death. But it happens to people. Sometimes it's because the parent does something dumb, sometime's it's just an accident that happens to an otherwise well-meaning person.

Edit: I don't think there's any point in demonizing them unless you can come up with evidence of malice.

 

[Pyrex]

a) This is a massive intrusion by society (a.k.a. the government) into something (family life) that has hiterto been regarded as something that should be left to individuals. (For example, what if society/the government decided that membership of a particular religion disqualified you from having children?)

>Tries very, very hard to stay away from politics<

The problem is it hasn't been left to individuals for hundreds of years.

A non-zero portion of the money I earn at my job goes to support low-income and/or poorly-parented children.

Is it so wrong for me to want my say in the matter to increase from zero to non-zero?

 

[Pyrex]

Aside from the ethics, I think this would only be feasible if you had 100% effective, reversable sterilisation.

i.e. Everyone would be sterilised at age 10, and it wouldn't be removed until you had got your "parenting licence" (with the sterilisation being reapplied if you lost said license).

You don't even really have to go so far as having a license. Simply put, you have the surgery at age 10, and thereafter at any time you can afford to do so you can go in and pay to have the surgery reversed.

In once swoop you virtually eradicate unwanted pregnancies and a whole host of related issues.