Raising a child is probably the most important thing a person will ever do in life. Yet we constantly hear stories of child abuse and neglect.
The creators of Survey Magnet recently put this question to me: Should you need a license to parent? After all, many less important activities require a license, such as driving, or even fishing.
My first reaction to the question was something along the lines of: “Hell no, that’s absolutely nuts.” Justifying the answer takes a bit of work, though it isn’t that hard. We know that foster parents and adopters, for instance, already require approval from the state before children are placed with them. Yet this doesn’t prevent child abuse; many of the worst abuses take place in state-approved foster homes by state-approved foster parents.
In answering the question for Survey Magnet, though, I didn’t focus on this aspect. Instead, I looked more at the long-term ramifications of such a licensing scheme. Most people don’t realize that it’s been done before right here in these United States and elsewhere in the world, and the results were horrible. During the eugenics craze of the 20th century, millions were forcibly sterilized, sometimes without their knowledge, or simply killed outright.
Most horribly, Adolf Hitler imported American eugenics to Germany, first sterilizing over 400,000, then engaging in “euthanasia” of 275,000 more through 1945, and during World War II, engaging in the mass executions of millions. Killing the “unfit” as government policy was never implemented in the U.S., but many doctors and mental institutions did it informally anyway through neglect or poisoning. Thus was the lethal injection born. Had it not happened in Germany, it might have happened here.
Read my full response to the question of parental licensing at Survey Magnet.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.
Video published by this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling+ license.
Bad Behavior has blocked 3289 access attempts in the last 7 days.
Facebook
Digg
del.icio.us
reddit.com
Newsvine
Derrick
Nov 10, 2009
Interesting info. However, I am not as surprised as I believed I would have been.
Michael Hampton
Nov 11, 2009
One of the things I’ve learned in the last few years is that government regulation of any kind is inherently dangerous. The most obvious and common danger is that the regulation will do something other than what was intended; this is the famous “unintended consequences.”
The less common and less obvious danger is that the regulation will do exactly what was intended. Like eugenics, I think that this is what we’re looking at here. Outright killing of undesirables, sanctioned by government, was being pushed here in the U.S., and given enough time, it may well have passed. Only the near-universal revulsion toward the end result of such a policy, as evidenced by world reaction to Nazi concentration camps, prevented it.
There are several other arguments I could have made against the idea of licensing parents, but with a 400 word limit (the final article was actually 401 words) I felt it best to stick with what I thought was the most compelling.
KBCraig
Nov 11, 2009
The original “license to bear children” is still being trumpeted as a way to keep the “undesireables” out. It’s called a marriage license.
DW
Nov 11, 2009
“The original “license to bear children” is still being trumpeted as a way to keep the “undesireables” out. It’s called a marriage license.”-KBCraig
I despise the marriage license, but for different reasons. Technically it’s not a license to marry (since we can still live in the same apartment, etc), but rather a license for the individual to get tax-benefits from his/her neighbors simply because, well, they’re married under the state. The state rewards people who come to it for its “blessing” by taxing single people. The state has become its own religion.
Highlander
Nov 11, 2009
This whole matter of ‘licensing’ is nought but ‘license’ unto itself.
.
WHERE in the U.S. Constitution –Article, Section, Paragraph/Clause– is there ~any~ enumerated authority to regulate that matter of ‘marriage?’
.
In the Founder’s day, any such thought as a ‘license’ to get married would have qualified for REVOLUTION against whatever authority had imposed any such requirement!
.
Is it NOT considered that ALL marriages are matters COMPLETELY between the parties joined?
.
Neither the United States nor the states themselves have any such authority to demand a ‘license’ to undertake that which is INHERENTLY a RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE.
.
And anyway: When was the last time some cop undertook to demand that a couple living together, present a ‘license’ of approval for their cohabitation?
.
And, has anyone ever had his/her license revoked for cause?
.
License?!?!?!
.
License?!?!?!
.
I DON’T NEED NO STEEENKING LICENSE!!!!!!
Michael Hampton
Nov 11, 2009
It’s presently illegal in North Carolina for two people of the opposite sex, who are not married, to “cohabitate.” Roommates? Forget it. Absurd? You bet.
Highlander
Nov 12, 2009
Well jeez, Michael, I dunno here.
.
If you live =by yourself= then you’re living with someone of the same sex.
.
This is true because there are three people with every person: Me, Myself, and I.
.
Now, if you’re playing with yourself, i.e., masturbating, then that can only mean that you’re a homosexual, because you’re playing with two other people of the SAME SEX!
.
HORROR OF HORRORS!!!!
.
Under the ordinary rules of the English language, you may play with others, BUT you =MUST NOT= play with yourself!
.
On the other hand, you ~may~ play by yourself …
.
So, darnitall, why isn’t it okay to play with myself when I might play with others?!
.
May I play with me or I? Nope, not even!
.
What the hell, over?!
Bob
Nov 13, 2009
Would any of this really matter to a 17 year old at the drive-in?
Laws can only go so far before the government imposing them gets taken down. People don’t really change.
I don’t think the eugenics would get off the ground today. We have too many human rights groups running around contesting everything in court. One guy even won 300,000$ against the hospital that circumcised him as a baby. It wasn’t a botched operation or anything, he just didn’t think they should have done it.
Today it’s my legal right to be an inbred, halfbreed, incompetent, homo retard dammit! So back off with that knife or I’ll sue! And keep the checks comin’.
Bob
Nov 13, 2009
“Welfare doesn’t pay enough for me to buy cocaine now, I don’t know what I’ll do when my baby is born.”
That’s an actual quote from a documentary I watched about the life of a stripper. If you could get the right people in charge, maybe a little eugenics would be okay.
Just a little eugenics…..
Michael Hampton
Nov 13, 2009
But FDR is already dead!
The problem with a government program is you can never get the right people in charge.
Highlander
Nov 13, 2009
Michael,
.
The problem with =ANY= government program is that it’s a ‘government program.’
.
Bob
Nov 14, 2009
Mother Nature has the best eugenics program around. If you can’t look after yourself, you die. It keeps the species at it’s best all the time. We just have to quit getting the way.
Parasites have a place in nature but they take responsibility for what they do. Producers try to kill them off at every opportunity. Only the toughest, wiliest parasites survive.
When we get back to basics one of these days, we’ll still have politician parasites but they’ll be Churchills and Hitlers. The best and the worst.
We’ll still have coked up pregnant strippers too, but they’ll be fantastic dancers and damned good lookin’.
What a wonderful world it will be.
I thought we would be well into it by now. Damned Obama and his stupid stimulus package. He’s whipping an old crippled up and dying horse. If we’d get out of the wagon and walk, we might get somewhere.
Don
Nov 14, 2009
All of this sounds like a federal marriage license. Marriage licenses are issued by states and counties. This is the only part of our lives the feds haven’t stuck there noses in yet.
Another license of course creates another government agency at some level and more agencies at lower levels to regulate and at some point issue the license. As we all know government agencies never go away (like the REO that Reagan tried to eliminate).
With more agencies comes more regulations and even more regulations breeding faster than rabbits. It never ends.
As for eugenics laws some of these never went away. They were watered down and incorporated into existing marriage laws. Some states require a blood test before a marriage license is issued. Others require parenting classes. People adjudicated as mentally ill cannot get married and have children in some states. If the do have children child protective services tries to take the children away.
The messianic state sooner or later gets what it wants.
Highlander
Nov 14, 2009
Don,
The very best suggestion one might proffer is just this: Ignore the state.
.
REALLY: It’s as simple as that.
.
Yeah, I know, you’re gonna say: But they’ll get around to you, sooner or later.
.
And if sooner or later half the citizens has decided to IGNORE the state, then what’re they gonna do? LOCK AWAY HALF THE CITIZENS?!!?!?!
.
Not that the COMMUNOFASCISTS wouldn’t try …
.
Gandhi had the right idea: Passive resistance works, when employed in its proper way.
.
There’s an old maxim in law: The law which cannot be enforced is no law at all.
.
Screw the state! Philosophically speaking, of course!!!
Bob
Nov 15, 2009
I’ve heard it argued that Ghandi wouldn’t have made it very far against Stalin or Mao, and that’s probably true.
Passive resistance can work sometimes, but no two situations are the same.
Do whatever works, and you’re right Highlander, the more people resisting the better.
We’re going to see a lot of resistance when we’re all broke and there’s no money to pay the enforcers.
I’m tired of sounding like a broken record but the time is coming.
I’m starting to feel like the old guy down the street from me. He was ‘born again’ in the early eighties and put up a big sign along the road in front of his house. It said “JESUS CHRIST IS COMING SOON!”. Over the years, the paint faded, the plywood cracked and one of the signposts rotted off. He put up another sign in the old one’s place just a year and a half ago. It only says, “Jesus loves you”.
Well, I’m not changing my line. FINANCIAL COLLAPSE IS COMING SOON! I’ve been preaching that since before the old guy put up his first sign. I have to be right sooner or later.
Highlander
Nov 15, 2009
Realization is like the dawn: At first it’s dark, yet the birds are singing.
.
Slowly there comes the early light, but only a few people see.
.
Yet even when the sun breaks the horizon, less than half are awake enough to notice: All the others are still fast asleep.
.
By the time the sun has fully risen, the ones still asleep will consider it an imposition to have been disturbed, and take notice of what’s been going on …
.
Such is the nature of Man.
AD
Nov 17, 2009
There is something wrong with a system which allows people to breed, especially when those same people would be denied a car loan/mortgage.
To add insult to injury, these undeserving/selfish individuals are then given the ability to pay for these children, at the expense of working/deserving people.
People should be required to have a psych-exam, a credit check and prove they are serious about having children.
This would do a great deal to end welfare (for the most part)
and prevent child abuse.
I’m not exactly happy about government regulation encroaching into our private lives, but there comes a point when people have to be made to be responsible to the rest of humanity.
Highlander
Nov 17, 2009
AD,
—–
“There is something wrong with a system which allows people to breed, especially when those same people would be denied a car loan/mortgage.”
—–
.
Without launching into an extended discourse on the matter, allow me just this: What you propose is nothing short of genocide.
.
Only ~some~ people get to ‘breed’ while the rest of us are relegated to worker bee status until we’ve lived out our ‘usefulness.’
.
Gee, imagine that: If you happen to have of a certain lineage, why you’ll be forever denied the ability to acquire any degree of wealth such as to afford a ‘mortgage,’ or ‘car loan.’
.
Yeah, and there goes >YOUR< family line …
.
Licensure you say?
.
Answer just this question: WHAT man-made law has =EVER= stopped anything from happening?
.
Bob
Nov 17, 2009
The law that wouldn’t let them show Elvis from the waist down on T.V. held for a little while, Highlander, but that’s the only one I can think of.
Good point.
Highlander
Nov 20, 2009
The remarks were:
—–
20. Fire alarm systems
.
While I understand the bad side to this, you do realize there are sooo many bad parents out there who wind up turning their children into bad hats of society through their lack of parenting skills? Even neglect is abuse. What do you think happens to neglected children who never get any guidance and love? The role of parents is far more important than most realize, and this is the root of the problem.
—–
.
What’s ~your~ idea of ‘bad hats?’
.
WHO gets to decide what ‘good parenting’ actually is?
.
And from precisely ~where~ did THEY obtain their credentials to prognosticate at length over what ‘good parenting’ is versus ‘bad parenting?’
.
What happens if –no matter how well a child is reared– s/he turns out to be worse than the worse-reared child?
.
You apparently have been led to believe that ‘proper parenting’ is the be all and end all of the matter.
.
Were we to take you at your word, then there would be no child raised in poverty, and the only way to have a child is to be wealthy enough for that to happen.
.
Quote for you:
—–
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis ~
—–
Bob
Nov 25, 2009
Well meaning but without understanding.
Thumbs up to that line.
I think if we lived long enough to understand everything, we would just sit back and do nothing. Let the people who don’t understand figure it out for themselves. That seems to be the only way we get it.
susan 28
Dec 14, 2009
“Let the people who don’t understand figure it out for themselves. That seems to be the only way we get it.”
Libertarianism in a nutshell! Good Show Babe (i mean Bob)!!