Alternative to abortions?

Question

Ok, here's my idea.

The person delivers the child. If this person is unfit to raise this child (whether it be financially, emotionally or just doesn't want to) the child is given up for adoption. Ok? Now stay with me

Since this person is unfit to care for the child (and the father as well, since he was part of this) they will be forced to have their tubes tied and get a vasectomy, therfore preventing this problem in the future. Seeing as they are unfit to raise a child, this helps ensure that they will never raise one in the future and therefore no more abortions.


How's this sound?

Plus now they can have all the protection free sex they want with no children to worry about!

Yes condoms do rule, for those with enough sense to use them.

Yes!! Some agree, some disagree! I love it!

Yeah, I agree with most of you, there are major flaws, but this was just a brainstorm, it's not like I had this planned out for weeks :P

Answer 1

The problem with this approach is what if they become a fit parent later? What if the incident sobers them up and they get their life in gear. Now, when they want to have children, they are denied this.

People, when they are young, make all kinds of stupid decisions and mistakes. Society seems to support the notion that you can rise above your past errors.

And, more importantly, who makes that decision that so-and-so is unfit?

What if I have the child and later on become an abuser? Is there going to be a follow-up? Or once I leave the system, it's OK?

I agree that we need a genuine alternative to abortion, but this sets the groundwork for severe government intrusion as to what I can do and who is in charge of my life.

And keep in mind, there are numerous instances of forced sterilization, both in America and in Nazi Germany. It just is a dangerous territory that you hope to navigate.

Answer 2

Yes, this would be a great idea but won't fly because it violates too many human rights. People do make stupid choices when it come to reproduction. The fact that there are contraceptives readily available and people still have unwanted pregnancies and abortions when it could have been easily avoided. It comes down to pure laziness. Some of us are here because sadly our parent used bad judgement or used no judgment at all just emotion. I think your plan is a good one however can I offer a suggestion. Perhaps there should be a system like the 3 strikes deal. After 2 or 3 pregnancies a woman or a man has a mandatory tubaligation or vasectomy because they have demonstrated that they are not responsible and their rights to reproduce has been revoked.

Answer 3

There are some flaws with your plan...It doesn't account for a few scenarios.

One is the young woman who gets pregnant accidentally before she is ready. Though she may not be prepared to care for a child now, she may be ready and more than able to be a good parent in the future. I don't believe it is fair to punish her forever for a poor decision, especially if she is making the difficult and mature decision to place her baby in a loving home.

Another scenario is that of a woman who is impregnated as the result of a rape. Just because she decides that she will not raise this child doesn't mean she should be denied the ability to bear children in the future, hopefully conceived in love and by choice.

From the outside, it may be easy to cast judgments about why people got pregnant. The actual truth of their circumstances is generally far more difficult to ascertain and more complicated than it seems at first glance.

Answer 4

Well, it's an intresting idea to begin with, but there are a few scenarios which could be problematic with the above concept, if passed as a law.
What would happen in the case of surrogate mothers or IVR babies that turn out deformed. If this law was strictly applied, even an experimentation which such fertilization processes would be extremely risky. And besides, in some cases, other women are chose to bear the child if the mother is incapable of doing it, and it has happened in some parts of Asia. What then, I ask?

But as far as the primary aim of this idea goes, it could help, but it's more of a warning punishment and will only serve to create backalley abortion centers and the problem will continue. it would be like the software industry trying to invent a new form of copy protecting its discs (at the expense of millions of dollars) only to have them pirated a few days later.

Answer 5

Ok- I see a flaw to your thinking though....say said couple does not want the child, but both may want children in the future, so they decide to keep the baby and raise it miserably out of necessity because they dare not let anyone tell them they can or can't have a child. Then will the world become overwrought with unwanted sad beings who never knew love because the parents were forced into keeping them in order to maintain control over their reproductive abilities?? What do you think?

Answer 6

It's not about unfit to raise a child, not to mention the civil liberties issue of forced infertility (you really want to live in that world?), it's about whether the child is wanted or not. And by the time the baby comes out two lives are already ruined. The psychological trauma of carrying a baby to term and then giving it up is just as horrible as the trauma of losing your mother. No matter who else cares for that child his life is already over. I know because I was adopted.

Answer 7

This is a terrible idea. One may not always be unfit to raise a child. If a sixteen-year-old girl gets knocked up and can't raise it, what if she wants a child ten or twenty years later? Undoing such surgeries is not easy and sometimes not possible.

Also, "protection-free" sex is not a risk only because of possible pregnancy. There are STI's.

In summary, what you are suggesting can already be done with something less vulgar and less permanent; the birth control pill.

Answer 8

That is questionable because unless the parents are deemed unfit and later decide to have another once being stable enough to parent, they can't becasue they are "fixed".

What it sounds like to me is that young people can have all the sex they want, condoms optional.

How it should be is two or three forms of protection, condoms included ALL THE TIME!!! You still run that risk of getting a STI or worse without it.

Answer 9

You don't see any redemptive value in people? In the first place, adoptive parents are lined up for babies. The adoption agency is like any other government operation. The red tape is so deep, the kid is often 3-5 years old before the process is completed. Its daunting to prospective parents.

In the second place, parents who give up their children are often children themselves. Once they mature, they usually make great parents.

I'm not completely against the idea though. I would consider using this form of birth control on lost cause drug addicts and the like.

Answer 10

first off, i think its really nice that you're trying to come up with a way or ways to solve such a big issue as abortion. your idea does sound logical however, suppose that father and mother does become able to raise a child, they are now out of luck with your idea. unless they do an invitro fertilization. but then again most couples would probably want to have a baby the natural way. good luck though and keep thinking!