Do you think people should be required to have a license in order to have a child?

Question

My brother and me got into a heated discussion about this last night. He suggested since their are so many crummy parents that their should be a law where people would have to get a license to have a child. He went on to say they would have to go thru months of doctors talking with them to make sure they are "ok" people and this would ensure that more people would raise children properly. I totally disagree with this.. What do you think?

I think its absurd! How can going thru a a few months of testing determine anything. Everyone changes and adapts when they are parents. You DO NOT KNOW how you will react when you have a child and raise one. Their is just no telling. I mean this country cannot even enforce gun control, or people driving with insurance..this is not realistic.

Answer 1

The last thing we need is the government further regulating the home and the family.
i agree. While some people do not deserve to be parents, no one is a perfect parent.

Answer 2

I'll give you an iron clad legal reason why it would never work. Having a child is tied in to so many privacy rights read into the constitution by the supreme court that such a law would never pass muster. The right to get married or divorced, to have an abortion or use contraception, to care, have control and have custody of children, are ALL recognized by the supreme court as part of the fundamental privacy rights in the term liberty used in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In 1942, the Supreme Court held in Skinner v. Oklahoma that there is a fundamental right to procreate.

What this basically means is that if such a law as suggested by your brother is challenged, the state would more or less have to show the law first has a "compelling" or very important purpose and, in addition, that there is no less restrictive way for them to achieve the purpose of the law. This standard is seldom met by the state and would result in it being overturned.

A license similar to one for marriage with a blood check is perhaps a doable theory, but what he's suggesting would never work and would be challenged and would get overturned as unconstitutional. Can you imagine going to some doctor to determine if you are fit and 'OK' to have a child. No different than going to a marriage therapist for such an OK. These suggested laws are non starters.

Answer 3

I guess the extended part of the argument would be: who's going to prevent people who aren't licensed from having kids? Mandatory birth control? Yeah - that wouldn't fly...and besides, who would be making sure it's taken every day - or will we require government issued depo shots and such? And what would happen to the children that are born to unlicensed parents? We have enough children now that wait and wait to be adopted. I understand his passion against bad parenting, but unfortunately to implement such a thing would be too much government down peoples throats, which I am totally against..they already butt into our personal lives enough. Granted, there are people out there who are parents and shouldn't be, but that holds true for a lot of other areas in life as well! I'm with you - I think he's being way too extreme and certainly unrealistic.

Answer 4

I think if people have to get a license to have children, we are taking freedoms away and on the verge of many many major freedom issues.....then look at this, what about all those people who would be absolutely wonderful parents who must adopt because of fertility issues? There wouldn't be "unwanted babies" for them to adopt.

If people have severe criminal backgrounds, murder, rape, physical abuse, repeat drug offenses, things in this nature, then maybe this is something to begin considering. But then if requiring a license were to become law, what happens when a person "skirts" around the law and has a child anyway?

Answer 5

Well, it might be helpful to have "child counseling" just like they have marriage counseling with two people considering getting married. But then again, look at the divorce rate - obviously that hasn't helped people stay in marriages. So I don't think a license would really do any good. Just because someone is able to get the license doesn't mean they might not act completely different when they actually have a child.

Answer 6

Abso-freakin-lutely! And besides a permit, or license to have a child, I think there should be a spay and neuter clinic for humans. "Oh, what was that, you are in court for welfare fraud AND you tested positive for drugs? Guess what? Your going to the pound for a little operation. And that brand new little baby you have, well, he is going to a new home where someone really wants him." Yep, if I have to pay $50.00 a year and fill out a questionnaire to yank a trout out of the river, then someone better be answering a true or false question whether it is okay or not to drive with a baby on your lap!

Answer 7

Yes, it would save a lot of children from awful circumstances. It would cut down on the need for foster homes and parents. It would save children from emotional and physical abuse. Being a child with an abusive childhood and born addicted to drugs i believe that it would be a great idea.

Answer 8

thats a really inhumane level of federal control over people, thats the most basic right as animals that we nave, for one adult to regulate that in another adult is cruel and unethical, before we even had doctors and cars and cities even before villages humans could mate and have kids, same way the government can't tell you when to eat or use the bathroom, they shouldn't get involved in who has kids
as far as who raises them is a different story because after the baby's born and you've had time to parent it is the best time to deem a parent fit or unfit
i don't think they could control it anyway

Answer 9

I totally disagree with that. Why should you have to go through months of doctoring just to have a baby. You should just be able to have a baby because you want to. Yes, there is alot of people having sex and getting pregnant. Then have an abortion, or hurt or kill the child. I mean if you don't want a baby, DON'T have SEX. Its that simple.

Answer 10

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard and I think it should never happen! I'm a good parent but I've heard of a lot of stupid people having kids. BUT, sometimes they just need to have a kid to learn how to take care of one. You know? It's an experience everyone should have. It's our right as human beings to have children, we are made to.