ieet | For the sake of the children, let’s control human breeding. No one
should be permitted to reproduce until they pass a battery of tests.
Does that proposal enrage you? Go ahead, hate me. Call me vile names
like “Neo-Nazi-Elitist-Baby-Killing-Totalitarian-Sicko.” Or simply
“Eugenicist.” I don’t care. I know I’m right.
It’s blatantly clear that 15-year-old intoxicated half-wits can
easily spawn, but should they? Hell no. Let’s control human breeding,
please. Let’s keep babies away from buffoons, and let’s test fetuses
meticulously to guarantee healthy infants. No one should be permitted to
reproduce unless and until they pass a battery of tests.
Philosophers, psychologists, and social workers have advanced this
idea for 30+ years, notably Hugh LaFollette in his seminal essay, “Licensing Parents” (1980), and Peg Tittle, editor of Should Parents Be Licensed?
(2004). Their suggested reform—based on humanitarian concerns for the
rights of children—is always booed down hysterically with the shrill
vocabulary that I listed above.
But the reformers are right. Completely. Ethically. I agree with
Joseph Fletcher, who notes, “It is depressing…to realize that most
people are accidents,” and with George Schedler, who states, “Society
has a duty to ensure that infants are born free of avoidable defects.”
Traditionalists regard pregnancy and parenting as a natural right
that should never be curtailed. But what’s the result of this
laissez-faire attitude? Catastrophic suffering. Millions of children
born disadvantaged, crippled in childhood, destroyed in adolescence.
Procreation cannot be classified as a self-indulgent privilege—it needs
to be viewed as a life-and-death responsibility.
Look at it this way: adoption centers don’t allow knuckleheads to
walk out with a child; they maintain standards that we should apply to every wannabe parent.
Below I’ve compiled a list of deplorable situations caused by flawed
individuals who should not be allowed to impregnate, gestate, reproduce,
and parent because they’re mentally, physically, emotionally, or
genetically unsuitable for the ambitious task.
