If being an adoptive parent is treated as a privilege, why is being a biological parent treated as a right?

Question

From what I have read, there exists a rather complex screening process by which a potential adoptive parent is judged whether or not he/she is of stable and sound mind, and can adequately provide for and support a child. This is seen as legal and, above all, desirable and necessary, because nobody (I can only hope) wants children to be raised by parents who are unfit to care for them.

As far as I know, NO such restrictions exist on who may become a biological parent. Consequently, as far as I know, no such method exists to prevent the biological urge of thousands of generations from yielding offspring to fertile adults.

Is there some way of implementing a similar program or screening process for potential biological parents WITHOUT infringing on what some may call a "natural right"? I can't think of any, but ideas would be wonderful.

Some idiots, for the sake of the future of humanity itself, have NO business procreating...

Answer 1

I definitely see where you are coming from with this.  There are way too many cases of children being sexually and physically abused, being murded or even committing atrocious acts themselves.  I don't think the problem lies within genetics, as many people here have seemingly suggested.  I think that perhaps the real issue is that we live in a country (maybe even the only country) where parents aren't really expected to take care of their children.  They expect the schools to do it, or relatives to do it, and in some cases, the television to do it.  It seems almost equally acceptable whether you are a busy single mom, or if both parents work two jobs, or if both parents are just lazy and drug addicted.  Unfortunately, ignorance does come in to play because parents who have no clue about child rearing are having kids, who are having kids, who are having kids and so on and so forth.  Sadly, it is ususally people's attitudes to just let parents do as they see fit, even if it is not in the best interest of the child.  I don't think a "screening process" per se is the answer, just because it would be too easilty corruptable.  Maybe the answer lies in the old saying "it takes a village."

Answer 2

In an Utopian society this may make sense but I live in the real world.

The last thing we need is the government issuing permits to pro-create. Heck I can't even get them to issue a permit for a @^%$ fence in a reasonable amount of time!

Answer 3

I completely agree that some people do not deserve to be parents that is tre of biological and adoptive and foster parents.

Yes even through the thorough screening Adoptive / Foster parents can turn out to be Horror Parents.

So its just not something for any Parent that can suitably predict that the parent will be the best parent.

Biologically speaking , the parent could pass the *test* before pregnancy with flying colours and then after the baby is born could become a horrid evil person. Again no guarantees

There are no guarantees in this life my friend except death and taxes

Answer 4

You make a very valid point. There are many many people out there who don't deserve to bring children into this world. But its seen as a fundamental right.

I could name many people from my home town (which is a small country town in Australia with one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the entire country) who are good examples.

Here in Australia the government tried to encourage breeding to increase our falling birth rate and reverse the trends of a mostly aging society by introducing a payment.

Each newborn baby earns $4000 or $5000 for their parents. A LOT of whom use this money purely to buy 'a new plasma tv' or a car or what not.

The plasma TV one was actually a couple i know personally.

It is almost impossible to stop people like this and other sorts procreating which is a sad thing.

Even laws won't work.

Just recently here in Australia also there was a father/daughter who had a sexual relationship and produced their very own daughter; a product of incest.

There is a law against that here for good reason and even that didn't stop them.

So who knows if its ever going to get any better.

Answer 5

You know Hilary Clinton would like to destroy these rights just like you. Someday soon in America we could be screened and interviewed by social workers if we want to get pregnant but I hope that day never comes.

If you truly believe that not everyone has the basic human right to reproduce then you should check out some neo-n**i clubs, I'm sure you will find many likeminded individuals.

Who cares if six-million people get killed and hundreds of thousands are forcibly sterilized- its for the future of humanity, right?

Answer 6

i'll ask my ovaries and get back to you.

this argument has been made et nauseum...

and just because aparents go through "a rather complex screening process" that in no way guarantees they will not be crappy parents. i'm sure the agency who gave a beautiful little girl to aparents, i know--who have an extended history of mental illness, including the husband who spent time in a s*x-addiction tx facility--had an extended...whatever you stated!.  now, how did that rather complex screening miss that?  oh, because people L.I.E!!!!

btw, most children are raised by the parents who conceived and gave birth to them; and they are usually not abused.

there are bad biological parents and bad aparents.  please don't jump to illogical conclusions based on some presumption of "screening" that aparents endure. no system is flawless.

some idiots for the sake of humanity itself, have NO business adopting.

ETA: happymom...word. i concur 110%

ETA: i think we get your question.  it's really not that complicated. we just are not giving you the answers you expected.

Answer 7

What you describe is Eugenics and that has already been shown to not only be an abysmal failure, but used for gain by those who are just as bad or worse than the people they claim are unsuitable to breed.

Answer 8

Lets just take away everyones rights to everything. there should be permits to take a c**p too. come on get a reality check already. for one not all and definatly not most birth-parents are bad as you idiotic people seem to think. and second there should be laws and it should be hard for anyone to adopt a child or any idiot would. did you ever consider that alot of birth mothers were raped?? so how do you screen them? get alife idiot.

Answer 9

Well, I've never adopted a person, but I have adopted pets and I can tell you pet adoption agents want to know for sure that you aren't getting a pet to eat it, make it fight other pets, feed it to another pet or just dump it on the street.

Same goes for kids. Just as we don't want people hoarding cats, we don't want them hoarding children. (believe me, there is some nutcase out there who would try it if they could)

No restrictions on bio-parents exist because you really can't tell someone what they can or can't do with their bodies. You can't make anyone have an abortion, you can't make anyone use birth control and you sure as h**l can't make them not have s*x.That all infringes on your personal liberties. There is no way to create a screening process, and no one would go for it. Someone tried that already, a gentleman named Hitler. It didn't turn out so well for him.

Answer 10

Are you serious?  Um, hate to break it to you, but this idea has been around for awhile. Maybe you should pay attention in your World History classes.

Total Recall is correct.  It's called Eugenics, and it was really popular with the n**i party in Germany.  Maybe you heard of them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

ETA:  I reread your question just to be sure there wasn't some nuance that I had missed but, alas, no.  Congratulations, I think you've proved your own point.

Answer 11

Because life isn't fair.

ETA - Long day!  I did not mean for my answer to sound flip or nasty.  Often life is not fair.  I do not think it is fair for loving people to not be able have children.  I do not think it is fair for children to have abusive and neglectful parents.  I do not think it is fair for women who are pregnant under stressful conditions to be treated like potential baby breeders.  Life is not fair.

Answer 12

I guess fertility comes with privileges, just like lots of physical abilities, that those who don't have the ability just don't have.  As someone who is infertile, I've had to accept that.  

Yes, there are certainly biological parents who don't "deserve" a child, and I have sometimes meandered down the train of thought you are expressing, but, in the end, there really are "natural" rights.  People get to keep those rights, without the invasive screening process until they prove themselves unfit.

Answer 13

I just don't think there is a way to actually do this without it becoming very 1942ish....

This just implies that a "decision" maker or decision process would have to be created---and by "What" standard would we use to make such a process?

How can we possibly REALLY tell until things are actually done for real. It is true that some people who adopt look great on paper--some biological parents look great on paper too...  But, the largest number of Undiagnosed Fetal Alcohol Children are living with their biological parents... Alcoholisim doesn't care who someone is and it happens accross all social economic boundaries....

Who gets to decide how to decide? Is it one group of values over another? Do we start saying that all parents with premature babies need to be supervised....

Or Wait...do we start looking at the younger children.... the ones with problems and give them shots that make if where they can't pro-create....  After all we could actually get rid of all the "bad" genetics and therfore eliminate some of the future pissy parents if we just start deciding which kids we don't want having the chance to reproduce.....

We could force people with mental illnesses to be steralized. After all we know there are genetic links with some types of mental illness--and more scary Personality Disorders....They should't have kids Right?

How about no one over the age of 30 is permitted to have a baby because there is an increased odds of Downs Syndrome.... Yes most people with downs are just the nicest people...but, still it isn't the best life so No One can have kids over the age of 30.....

Who decides? Do you want the government deciding....? Maybe they can weed out those lazy people who just use the system up. You want an agency in charge of deciding which people are permitted to pro-create?

So will it be about Zero Population? What about the Catholics are you going to say you can't have children--we have decided that you are not the type who should have children...  We don't want any more crazy Catholics...or whatevers to come along--they just cause too many problems...

We should all hope people make informed and educated decisions before becoming parents....  That just doesn't always happen... In the old days people supported each other extended families helped when things went different then planned--today everyone is so wrapped up in their Own Personal Rights or whatever--that people are actually considering things Hitler thought might be a good idea......

Pro-creation is a God Given Right....and it should always be such... Adoption is Not A Right--Not one person has the right to Take over the Care of another persons child... Period. It should be harder when "People" step in and make God Like decisions... like who someone will have for a mom and dad.

Answer 14

really good question. u also need a license to own a dog!

ive thought about a bit recently, when you see the way the world is startin to go, psychos and murderers and rapists, just look at all the serial killers -  bad parenting. (im not saying all parents whose offspring has ended up commiting  a violent crime is a bad parent...there can be a number of different reasons.)

in the area i live in a 14 year old boy has been arrested for shooting a guy execution style. when he went to court, he did not so much as blink, he said he didnt care. Even worse, his mother said she didnt care either. Parent of the year. And there are lots of those people, in this town alone. These people shouldnt have kids. The same child, if brought up by a proper parent, would never be in that situation.

Skum breeds Skum. most of the time.

People should, I suppose, be given the chance to have a child. But if that child turns out to have serious problems, caused by bad parenting, then they shouldnt be allowed have any more.

i think that someone who has commited a violent rape or a vicious cold blooded murder should be sterilised. or even castrated, if they are let out of prison as they so often are. how fit could these people be to raise a child? and if they did what would the child be like?

there are some idiots out there who have kids but its the cruel people and the people who dunno how much the way they treat their kids has such a massive effect on their future psychological and physical health. it should be compulsary for ALL prospective parents, adoptive and natural, to attend a crash course in child psychology.

maybe then the children of today wouldnt be obese, lazy, materialistic, spoilt and disrespectful. these children are the adults of the future guys...whats the world gonna be like when its run by a bunch of morons? (well i suppose it already is)

:-)

Answer 15

Happymom said it all for me.  Adoption is not a right.  No woman in this country has the fundamental right to give up her children.  Check the court cases on adoptee access in both Oregon and Tennessee.  Its there clear as day.  You asking the government to come in and control everyone's sexual activity.  Its impossible.  Its not your decision.  I don't want someone coming to my house and saying that I am unfit as a mother because I am poor.  No one owes you a child.

Answer 16

I am implementing a parenting program in the hospitals, so when a baby is born, the parent(s) can be educated about some very basic stuff -- infant safety, nutrition, developmental milestones, vaccinations, discipline, community referrals, parenting support, etc.  We are making some real progress.  It is a start, although a drop in the bucket for what's needed!  New parents are a captive audience, and at this time in a parents life, they are the most receptive to protecting their child.  But we can only get in to work with them for a two hour visit, which is not near the long term program we want.  We then plan give the parents coupons for parenting classes with local agencies.  We hope to have the program up and running soon,  It has been in the making for four years.  We have gotten funding, have written and are printing the materials, and hope to enter five to seven hospitals in the Fall.  We are Social Workers from many disciplines volunteering our time.  Wish us luck!

Answer 17

All I can say is "Amen."

Answer 18

I think it would be GREAT if there was a way to screen ALL parents--biological and adoptive--but if you can't stop people from having s*x, you're not going to be able to prevent people from being parents.  In this country, you can't force anyone to use birth control or sterilization.

I agree, some people have no business procreating.