License people to have children …

I know, I can almost hear a collective gasp. 

How dare anyone suggest that people be licensed to have children? 

Nobody wants to admit it, but that’s the answer to so many social ills. Draconian, sure.

But tell me:  Haven’t there been times when you read or see something that compels you to think that not everyone should be allowed to have children? 

Be honest.  When you hear about somebody marketing their child to pedophiles in return for drugs, or abandoning their kids while they gamble at a casino, tell me you’ve never had that thought.  When you read about some couple torturing and then killing their child in a drug-induced frenzy, or murdering and putting their child’s body out with the trash, can you honestly say you still believe everybody has a “right” to bear children? 

While much of the political debate still focuses on abortion, the rights of the unborn, and a woman’s right to choose, aren’t we all sidestepping the bigger issue?

Nailing down precisely when conception begins and a life is created is ultimately far less important than preventing conception by some people in the first place.

If a child is brought into this world by loving, caring parents it’s a wonderful event. Yet far too many innocent children are condemned by irresponsible and emotionally unstable parents to a life of unspeakable abuse and possibly murder at the hands of their parents. 

What’s worse? Infringing on people’s rights to bear as many children as they are now biologically capable or preventing people who couldn’t take care of a pet rock responsibly from producing children?  I know I care more about the protection of a living, breathing child than I do about anybody’s freedom to conceive whenever and how often that happens.      

That does not make me pro-abortion.  Nor does it mean I believe in selective breeding to improve society as a whole; I’m not in favor of weeding out the handicapped or the poor to create some genetic utopia.  I’m not trying to interfere with love and natural attraction.

I simply want to stop those who have no business having children, and no interest in raising and protecting a child, from conceiving. Conceiving shouldn’t be an accident, or an act of defiance or indifference, or done to prove you’re an “adult” or to save a bad relationship. 

Instead, it should be a conscious thought-through decision by an adult to bring another human into this world and care for it responsibly for at least 18 years, sacrificing at times what you want to provide what they need.  If someone is not willing to make that commitment with all their heart, and prove they will follow through on it, they shouldn’t be allowed to conceive.   

That’s right.  I said it.  They shouldn’t be allowed to conceive.     

Many will say there must be other, less severe answers, like education and abstinence.

The education advocates argue that better sex education about contraceptives and the like will persuade people to have sex more responsibly.  That’s betting that people don’t understand how they get pregnant or how to prevent pregnancies. 

I maintain everybody from age 10 on today knows how people get pregnant and knows how to prevent pregnancy. You can do demonstrations using bananas and condoms, and hand out free condoms to everybody until hell freezes over and they won’t always get used. It also ignores a cultural aberration that teenagers get other teenagers pregnant for a host of other reasons – like boasting rights or to set up their own household -- none of which has anything to do with having condoms handy.    

It’s also proven pointless to preach abstinence.  You can’t stop anyone from having sex – whether they are a 13 year old girl or boy, a 35 year old crack addict, or a raving psychopath. 

You can, however, stop them from conceiving.  And we must. 

I’m sure some responsible scientists somewhere have figured out how to make a safe, non-invasive negative-option form of temporary birth control for either men or women or perhaps both. It’s probably already been tested in countries with serious population issues like India and China.  And if they haven’t created this yet, they should. 

I’m not a Malthusian, Nazi, or eugenics proponent like a lot of progressives in the 20^th Century such as Hitler and Margaret Sanger.  I don’t worry about overpopulation, a weakening gene pool, or the sick and poor overwhelming us.  I simply want to put in a few hurdles to make conceiving a more considered and rational choice than a mistake or a passing whim. 

If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to bear a child. If background checks and in many states a waiting period are required to buy a firearm, why wouldn’t we do something similar for conceiving?  If you need to be an adult to purchase cigarettes or liquor, why would it be unreasonable to keep people who aren’t adults from getting pregnant? 

I know, the first thought most will have is who gets to make the call whether someone is or isn’t allowed to conceive. That’s the most dangerous part of this. 

So there need to be some basic restrictions up front, the first and most important being that you must be at least 18 years old to conceive.  You have to pass a drug screening.  You also need a signed contract between the prospective biological mother and biological father that makes both parties irrevocably and jointly responsible for all actions of their prospective child until that child reaches the age of 18 and jointly responsible for the support and care of that child until then.  Finally, you have to wait 30 days from applying before you may be licensed to conceive.  

I don’t think that’s too much to require.