Should people have to go through an application process in order to have children?

Question

With how many people are, stupid, irrisponsible, abusive and just plain not fit to be parents. Wouldnt it be benificial for society if people had to apply to be able to have kids?

Answer 1

I think it would be a good idea, kind of like going through the adoption process, but with your own children. It would, however, be extremely hard to implement. Would they just stop people from having sex until they were "licensed" to have a child? Also what about accidental pregnancies? How would you regulate them?

Answer 2

Yeah, a lifeguard for the gene pool, eh? Welcome to China. Wow, that would really tick off the Roman Catholic Church! I've always thought it sucked that people get governmental tax assistance for having children. The more children they have, the more tax money they get. How about a tax credit for NOT having children? Works for me. I think people should be able to AFFORD children. No child should be born into poverty. That sure would could down on the world's overpopulation. Your idea of an application process would, however, create an elite class of people. A bit Ubermensch-ish, don't ya think? The smart ones that are able to sustain a good living wage would be able to reproduce; the miscreants, criminals, mentally challenged, disease-prone, etc., and the lazy good-for-nothings would be S.O.L. It'll never work, it's a pretty creepy thought when you consider the big picutre, and it's impossible to enforce something like that. But I get where you're coming from. I'll take the tax break though.

Answer 3

As long as I'm the one who gets to review the applications then yes. I wouldn't want anyone telling me that I am defective and can't reproduce except on the black market. If you are irresponsible, you should be able to have kids. Some people change, and especially become more responsible after having kids. It is a good idea for parents to be checked on. Schools should report any signs of abuse or neglect to the authorities. ... maybe you should have to apply if you want more than 2 kids, for population control.

Answer 4

I would say yes, because of the hundreds of thousands of children that are mistreated, abused, and ignored, but if we had an application process to have children we would be becoming more like China and less like a free thinking democratic country.

We have system set up to combat the way children are mistreated, whether it be as basic as a neighborhood watch, all the way up to child protective services and the judges that preside in court cases, as well as social services and the police.

The fact is we cant stop horrible people from having children. But, we can be responsible and take children away from environments that arent positive. I wish there was a clean cut way to curb irresponsible parents, like an application process.

All we can do as a society is watch our neighborhoods and report abuse when we see it. And do the best we can as individuals.

Answer 5

It is ironic that people DO have to go through a screening process to be able to adopt children (although the process is certainly not failsafe, judging by some of the people recently who have been charged with neglect), but not to have biological children. The reason is that the government cannot legislate personal reproductive freedom (the right to or the right not to give birth).

Answer 6

I had a best answer with something like this before. Check out that answer at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al8m4UpKQjh5DUJMCvQIIxjsy6IX?qid=1006053121813

With overpopulation in mind genocide is not the answer, but instead a birth-tracking system would be the most effective way to control the Earth's population.

What this system would do is it would give a pre-registered couple a document. On this document would be the children they've applied to have and the ones that they've been consented to by the government to have, and any children they have given up for various reasons.

All couples in this program would automatically be allowed to have 2 children (1 per each person per lifetime so that the population would be the exact same). Should a couple want to give up one of their allowed child births they could give it up to a collection of given-up births that are open for taking which a couple could apply for after their 2 allotted children were born. Couples who had previously given up 1 of their allowed children could legally have one more child, then for the second they would have to apply for a given-up slot. Couples who had one child and gave up their second could also apply for another child if they wanted one or conditions were fixed to allow children.

Should a person die accedentally, say in a car crash, their slots would go to the given-up bank as well. Then in about a year they would be replaced.

As for couples who became pregnant without permission, the wife would recieve a mandatory abortion at the expense of the couple. They could then have their legal babies and apply for more since their crime would have been paid for by the fine.

I'd also like to add from personal experience that the rate of monkey-see-monkey-do is quicker than the speed of actual aging, so you have high school kids seeing their 20-something year old brothers, sisters, cousins and friends having kids and then they think it's suddenly "hott" (speaking of people who're going to need a birth tracking system...). From there you have all sorts of problems, it just gets very complicated.

Answer 7

No - no - and noooo. We already have too much interference in from the Government in people's lives. Stupid people will still have kids because they wont apply and the better people in society will be more turned off from reproducing. Take about social engineering taken to its most moronic length - just don't go there.

Answer 8

I think that wont solve the underlying problem, that is, it wont clean up stupidity, irresponsibility or children´s misery. If that is your aim, than I would suggest that society reallocates its resources from military and financial speculation (David C. Korten) to education and Medicare. That way we would create bigger chance for people to be responsible (e.g. literature would give kids good aspiration which would in turn stimulate them to more productive and constructive aims) and lets just say good.
Plus, theres no way any one could come up with a good application, because it would be a huge problem which question to ask with regard to all kinds of disriminations.

Answer 9

Not really because I wouldn't trust the people making the decisions either. What would be better would be for our leaders to have some wisdom and for them to set the real example of how people should live. For me the best examples are the great souls that have lived according to their conscience - like Ghandi or Buddhist masters. Ultimately who else has the wisdom to decide these things. The Nazis tried something similar, remember?

Answer 10

No effing way. Do you really want the government to control every aspect of your life? Can't you think for your self and give others the courtesy to think for themselves regardless of what you think they think they are doing.

Just imagine a world where everybody was smart and got it all together, you'd make a whole lot of people jobless and not just the social workers and psychoanalysts, but also a lot of these people who have got it together and who take advantage of the not so smart people. Don't touch the delicate balance it may have many undesired consequences.