Mandatory training/certification to have children?

[Quantum Perception]

Should citizens require certification to have and raise children, similar to how doctors and other professionals?

Discuss....
______________________________________________________
I say YES for two reasons:
(1) It would make people more serious in making that decision
(2) It would be a great way to give out the latest information on how to raise children healthily.

The way I see it, if someone would to get pregnant on accident, the options would be: abortion, adoption, or the education of the mother as would happen normally.

Also as a result of this, more research will be geared toward new and better forms of contraception.

Alas, why should we not have this implemented? We certify activities and things because they have the potential for danger. Raising children has that same potential if not greater (Charles Manson's mother tried to sell him for a pitcher a beer when he was an infant.)

 

[DwnSouthPillPopper]

Should citizens require a licence to have and raise children, similar to how licenses are required to drive and sell liquor?

Discuss....
______________________________________________________
I say YES for two reasons:
(1) It would make people more serious in making that decision
(2) It would be a great way to give out the latest information on how to raise children healthily.

The way I see it, if someone would to get pregnant on accident, the options would be: abortion, adoption, or the education of the mother as would happen normally.

Also as a result of this, more research will be geared toward new and better forms of contraception.

Alas, why should we not have this implemented? We license activities and things because they have the potential for danger. Raising children has that same potential if not greater (Charles Manson's mother tried to sell him for a pitcher a beer when he was an infant.)

Your crazy? WTF have you been smoking. FREEDOM OF CHOICE is all I have to say to you. Go live under a dictatorship you wierdo

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

no. we do not want to give the government that power. or i sure don't. sounds like a facet of a cliche, fictional dystopia. or crazy talk you hear from an early morning radio host.

 

[slimvictor]

I definitely can dig what you are saying, OP.
Theoretically, it might make a lot of sense.
However, when putting theory into practice, I am very afraid of what would happen.
For example, I have a few questions:

Who will determine who gets a license, and who doesn't get one?
--> presumably the government. That leads to certain thoughts...

Will having an arrest for e.g. drug possession ruin one's chance for a license?
Will poor people be allowed to get licenses? Will they have to prove that they have enough money to support children?
What about people who don't believe in the mainstream perspective (e.g. atheists, agnostics, mystics, Buddhists, anti-materialists, socialists, non-whites, non-straights, non-conservatives, etc.)?

Why do you specifically mention the education of the mother?
Is the education of the father not important?
Will licenses be given to single mothers? Single fathers?
What about lesbians, gay men, threesomes, entire communities?

As you can see, such an idea has a strong potential to be turned into a crazy, cult, dictatorial system (hence the response by DSPP).

 

[Quantum Perception]

I definitely can dig what you are saying, OP.
Theoretically, it might make a lot of sense.
However, when putting theory into practice, I am very afraid of what would happen.
For example, I have a few questions:

Who will determine who gets a license, and who doesn't get one?
--> presumably the government. That leads to certain thoughts...

Will having an arrest for e.g. drug possession ruin one's chance for a license?
Will poor people be allowed to get licenses? Will they have to prove that they have enough money to support children?
What about people who don't believe in the mainstream perspective (e.g. atheists, agnostics, mystics, Buddhists, anti-materialists, socialists, non-whites, non-straights, non-conservatives, etc.)?

Why do you specifically mention the education of the mother?
Is the education of the father not important?
Will licenses be given to single mothers? Single fathers?
What about lesbians, gay men, threesomes, entire communities?

As you can see, such an idea has a strong potential to be turned into a crazy, cult, dictatorial system (hence the response by DSPP).

So I'm weighed down back to the earth. That is an issue; my idealism left me ignorant to the government factor.

Yet I still think something like licenses have to be enacted, not so much as a means of taking it away from people, but as education and continuous updating of that information to those people. That is my main reason for holding this point of view.

In other words, its not so much that this license permits a privilege. Instead its that these licenses ensure that the persons knows what they are doing because the ill-rearing of children is the greatest cause for mental illness.

Maybe more like a degree then a license lol

 

[rollingstoned!]

I could see forced sterilization being implemented soon after.
Fuck. That.

 

[kaywholed]

I approve of eugenics programs. I think the human race is mostly shit, and should be cleaned up. I also think that there are very few people qualified to run such programs and they are unlikely to ever have the chance.

 

[socko]

Should citizens require certification to have and raise children, similar to how doctors and other professionals?

Discuss....
______________________________________________________
I say YES for two reasons:
(1) It would make people more serious in making that decision
(2) It would be a great way to give out the latest information on how to raise children healthily.

The way I see it, if someone would to get pregnant on accident, the options would be: abortion, adoption, or the education of the mother as would happen normally.

Also as a result of this, more research will be geared toward new and better forms of contraception.

Alas, why should we not have this implemented? We certify activities and things because they have the potential for danger. Raising children has that same potential if not greater (Charles Manson's mother tried to sell him for a pitcher a beer when he was an infant.)

You need some form of driver's education and a license to legally drive a car. Why not do the same for having children? Too many people who just do not care about the consequences and for this reason are unfit to be parents are reproducing. I know a person (a convicted rapist who is now on the dole) whose mother, a part-time trailer park prostitute, drank so heavily while pregnant that he is very visibly FAS (fetal alcohol syndrone) and has brain damage. The same mother sold her grandchild (born by her crack-whore daughter) to an FBI agent and spent some time in prison. It is train wrecks like these, in addition to having survived my own hellish childhood, that makes me agree that it is worth discussing and implementing in some form. For starters, I think some form of sterilization (vasectomy or tubal ligation should be freely offered).

Edit:
This got me wondering if it is true that in order to adopt a child, the adopting couple must undergo some sort of approval or training process? So why not do something similar for birth parents?

 

[Pythagoras]

I approve of eugenics programs. I think the human race is mostly shit, and should be cleaned up. I also think that there are very few people qualified to run such programs and they are unlikely to ever have the chance.

Is this sarcastic. You believe in Eugenics per se (without the qualifier or liberal). And I guess you would be one of those lucky souls to work at Eugenics corp, with a stack of files on your desk, each adorned with the picture of a person,or a couple, with you spending your days stamping them with either 'ACCEPT' or 'REJECT'. Eugenics has been shown to be a perverse intrusion on human rights...and if we bin one human right, which is next for the chop - the right to a free press???

Please tell me your being sarcastic?

 

[rollingstoned!]

You need some form of driver's education and a license to legally drive a car. Why not do the same for having children? Too many people who just do not care about the consequences and for this reason are unfit to be parents are reproducing. I know a person (a convicted rapist who is now on the dole) whose mother, a part-time trailer park prostitute, drank so heavily while pregnant that he is very visibly FAS (fetal alcohol syndrone) and has brain damage. The same mother sold her grandchild (born by her crack-whore daughter) to an FBI agent and spent some time in prison. It is train wrecks like these, in addition to having survived my own hellish childhood, that makes me agree that it is worth discussing and implementing in some form. For starters, I think some form of sterilization (vasectomy or tubal ligation should be freely offered).

Edit:
This got me wondering if it is true that in order to adopt a child, the adopting couple must undergo some sort of approval or training process? So why not do something similar for birth parents?

^ Because it would be abused. For example, I could see minorities being denied the right to have kids. Also, everyone would be boring as fuck because we'd all be the same (to a greater degree than we are now).
Yeah it sucks that people have kids and use heavily while pregnant, but these people serve a purpose. They show others what not to do.

 

[Jabberwocky]

This idea of licenses or attaining qualifications before one can parent has been appealing to me at times. As soon as I picture how this would actually work after politicians, courts, and the like got involved I cringe away from the concept.

Many people parent without the requisite traits like adequate maturity, financial resources, mental health, etc. and it is a social catastrophe. It is a long running social catastrophe though, I don't feel comfortable getting the state involved anymore than it is already. The state stepping in when abuse or neglect is occurring and running educational programs is probably as much state based efforts as I can feel comfortable with at this point.

Environmental pressures and limited resources may make me and a lot of people rethink reproduction being entirely up to individuals someday.

 

[kaywholed]

Is this sarcastic. You believe in Eugenics per se (without the qualifier or liberal). And I guess you would be one of those lucky souls to work at Eugenics corp, with a stack of files on your desk, each adorned with the picture of a person,or a couple, with you spending your days stamping them with either 'ACCEPT' or 'REJECT'. Eugenics has been shown to be a perverse intrusion on human rights...and if we bin one human right, which is next for the chop - the right to a free press???

Please tell me your being sarcastic?

I am not sarcastic. I think most people of the human race are worthless, and should someone remove their existence that would free up a lot of resources to dedicate to people that can positively contribute to the human race.

The world would be a better place without crackheads, the mentally ill or retarded, or just people that are dumb.

With selective breeding we can build a better future, rather than continue to wallow in a pool of human scum.

 

[modern buddha]

I think the idea is noble, but there is no way something like that could ever be negotiated. Let nature take its course. There are always negative consequences for actions taken and if too many children born to unstable households is the action, the instability will in time take over.

Also, in the long scheme of things, we need not worry about what other people do. Yes, there may seem to be 'too many people', but that's their problems if they want to have 432704 kids and are not "properly educated" on what to do with said kids. It's not your problem.

 

[voxmystic]

Oh, dear God/dess, NO! I can just imagine who would be stamped for approval -- certainly not intelligent, forward-thinking individuals open to change, who constantly question authority and the status quo. No, the right to procreate would go to the moral majority; smugly self-assured, unquestioning, goose-stepping, blind followers. And whose to say that the proposed parenting education would be right? It's only been very recently that people started to seriously question, and shun, the practice of spanking.

I understand the desire to see a decline in crackhead welfare parents, but more government regulation is no way to go about it. Look what it's done to the food industry.

And we cannot forget that once the goverment gets hold of something, ANYTHING, it becomes a tool to acquire wealth and power. Is that the future you want for our children?

Eugenics is a pretty nefarious idea. Looks nice on paper, but in practice, people like Stephen Hawking would have been euthanized at birth or before, and what a shame that would have been!

 

[B9]

Couldn't be implemented, maybe to a certain extent in the first world it could.
I envision womenn hiding in caves clutching beloved infants to their breasts as the kaywholed Unofficial Infant Extermination Unit secure the area & begin their search. They carry painless transdermal euthanising chemicals & place these on the child to die by crossing the forehead with the chemical.
The question really is how much economic sense this would make ? Western countries need children to look adfter the old folks & do work & whatnot, those types of people underpin the higher minded individuals & are indispensable.
It's a white elephant of a plan, in extreme cases I believe medical services ought to be legallly able to make women temporarily infertile ( this my already be the case I don't know) if she's adjudged to be incapable of motherhood.

 

[voxmystic]

It's a white elephant of a plan, in extreme cases I believe medical services ought to be legallly able to make women temporarily infertile ( this my already be the case I don't know) if she's adjudged to be incapable of motherhood.

Don't forget to disable those willies -- there are at least as many unfit fathers in this world as mothers, and probably more.

 

[CoffeeDrinker]

I am not sarcastic. I think most people of the human race are worthless, and should someone remove their existence that would free up a lot of resources to dedicate to people that can positively contribute to the human race.

The world would be a better place without crackheads, the mentally ill or retarded, or just people that are dumb.

With selective breeding we can build a better future, rather than continue to wallow in a pool of human scum.

What makes you think the world would be a better place without these shining examples of the human spirit?

Just because it would leave more room for wallstreet bankers and overlord crooks, and of course their countless rat-racing wannabes.
What if someone were to decide that YOU were worthless? Do you think your "highly logical" views would experience any change as they are hauling you up to your execution?

 

[kaywholed]

What makes you think the world would be a better place without these shining examples of the human spirit?

If you remove undesirables and worthless individuals everyone gets to share a more of the resources that would have been wasted. More food, land, water and air for the best people.

Just because it would leave more room for wallstreet bankers and overlord crooks, and of course their countless rat-racing wannabes.
What if someone were to decide that YOU were worthless? Do you think your "highly logical" views would experience any change as they are hauling you up to your execution?

Obviously I would want to be in charge of any eugenics program to ensure my survival and for me to gift to mankind my ability to advance our species.

 

[ControlDenied]

Couldn't be implemented, maybe to a certain extent in the first world it could.
I envision womenn hiding in caves clutching beloved infants to their breasts as the kaywholed Unofficial Infant Extermination Unit secure the area & begin their search. They carry painless transdermal euthanising chemicals & place these on the child to die by crossing the forehead with the chemical.

sounds like a science fiction story in the making :D
--------------------------------------------------------
My opinion on the topic:

Nature breeds diversity.
Humans breed more humans.

Think about it.

 

[voxmystic]

It's not going to matter anyway. We're rapidly depriving the Earth of means to support us. There will be some planetary cataclysm that will kill most of us (if it hasn't already happened) and a few of the richest, or strongest, or just plain unluckiest may survive to repopulate. At that point, you get what you get.