WHTT Reproduction 1 - Responsibilities
There is one area of human endeavor in which society has essentially abrogated its responsibilities to promote life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the equal opportunity to achieve. That area is reproduction of babies and raising families. The entire subject of baby making and child rearing has been completely controlled by individuals, with only minimal efforts by society to mitigate extreme cases of child abuse. The result of society's inattention to the vital area of baby making and child rearing is that many parents and peer groups deprive many children of essential elements needed for those children to attain life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the equal opportunity to achieve. Even though society is not intentionally restricting the rights of those children, their rights are none the less being denied by society's passive acquiescence to the unsatisfactory way some parents raise their children.
There Is No "Right" To Make Babies
The freedom for each individual to decide for himself about when to make babies and how to raise them is considered by most to be their right in a free society. However, there is no "right" to make babies. Babies are new members of society, and they share equal rights and privileges with all other individuals in society. Since society is obligated to insure each baby's rights are protected, society has the responsibility to exercise some control over the process which results in the birth of new members into society. Instead of an individual having the "right" to make a baby, society delegates to the individual the freedom and responsibility to choose whether or when the individual will make a baby. That freedom, as with all other freedoms, is coupled with some serious responsibilities. Parents are obligated to properly care for their children and to provide them with the resources necessary for those children to attain life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and equal opportunity to achieve.
Parents sometimes make the mistake of viewing their children as the property of the parents. If that were so, then the parents could decide how to nurture, raise, and discipline their children without regard for the concerns or "interference" of the rest of society. Fortunately, children are not the property of parents. Children are people who have the same rights to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and equal opportunity to achieve as any adult. Society permits parents to direct the rearing of their children provided that the parents act responsibly and protect the rights of their children.
Children's Rights Must Be Protected
Children are a nation's best natural resource. They must be protected to be able to grow to their full potential. But the protection currently offered by society is limited to punishment after children have been abused. Protection from repeated child abuse is important, but it is far from adequate. We have all heard horror stories about infants abandoned in trash cans and babies born with a drug addiction. It is inconceivable that children who begin life in such problem environments can ever gain the promise of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and equal opportunity to achieve. Society has an obligation to minimize the risk that children will be damaged by bad parents.
Society Must Prevent Some People From Making Babies
Society must exercise some control over the process of making babies and raising children to insure that those children have the best possible chance to realize their natural rights. This required control means that society has an obligation to prevent some people from making babies and raising families. People who have demonstrated that they are not sufficiently responsible to handle the freedom of deciding when to make babies or how to raise them should not have society's permission to make such decisions. For example, people who have been convicted of child abuse should obviously not be permitted to make new babies to abuse. This concept can be generalized to any major crime such as theft or murder which demonstrates that the individual is socially irresponsible. Criminals do not respect the rights of others in society and would not protect the rights of their future children.
Similarly, people with serious genetic defects should not be permitted to make babies which would be deprived of their natural rights because of predictable birth defects. Preventing such people from making babies does not deprive those individuals from any of their rights because individuals do not have a "right" to make babies. Instead, society has the responsibility to insure that all babies will have the potential to attain the natural rights which are due to all members of society.
Finally, individuals who refuse to complete the public education offered by society have demonstrated an inability to properly direct their own lives. Society should prevent those individuals from making babies and poorly directing the lives of those children.
The concept of society preventing some individuals from making babies may seem extreme to some readers, so the moral implications should be further reviewed. One could misinterpret the above paragraphs to be advocating that social problems should be solved by preventing some babies from being born. That focus on an undesirable, but necessary end result of a serious problem, is inappropriate and misleading. All children should be strongly encouraged and motivated by their parents, their school, the community, and society to complete the education freely offered to them. Achieving at least a minimum level of educational accomplishment is essential to enable young people to grow into parents who are capable of providing the loving and learning environment that their future children will require for an equal opportunity to achieve. Education is more than just a good idea. It is essential for young people who would become parents. Education is a minimum standard which must be accomplished before society permits young people to become parents. Society has an absolute obligation to maximize the quality of life for all its individual members. The only realistic way society can meet this obligation is to both prevent the birth of babies whose rights cannot be protected, and to concentrate greater resources on the effort to protect the rights of those babies, children, and adults who are already members of society.
Note: This topic is complicated, and cannot be fully resolved in a short Web page. The above comments are only a portion of the more comprehensive work developed by the author.
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