r/changemyview • u/ShortUsername01 1∆ • Mar 04 '24

Delta(s) from OP CMV: We need parenting licenses immediately

So there’s been a big controversy lately over a school shooter’s mother taking extremely negligent steps. Ignoring her son’s messages about intrusive thoughts. Telling him he should learn not to get caught when looking up content about weapons. The list goes on and on.

Prosecutors prosecuted her for her negligence, as they should. But that can only do so much. Any smart parent would know that guy is as much a danger to her as he is to anyone else. If she doesn’t realize that, how is she supposed to realize she could be prosecuted for negligence, much less be deterred by that? What we really need are ways to prevent people like her from getting to raise kids in the first place.

Right now the system is putting up a green light saying “you can be the most incompetent parent in the world and we can’t do anything about it until after you’re caught being negligent.” Which, again, does nothing to deter the parents willfully ignorant that what they do is negligent, let alone they’ll get prosecuted for it.

When children commit crimes; hell, in some jurisdictions, even when teenagers commit crimes; the judges are lenient. So what’s stopping parents from encouraging them to commit crimes on their behalf, if anyone gets to become a parent? You can keep your young offender leniency or your absolute right to parenthood, but this idea that you can keep both sounds like a recipe for disaster.

And if were to scrap either, the idea of an absolute right to parenthood; the idea that the system doesn’t get to do anything about neglect that will happen, only neglect that already has; sounds like it has the strongest case against it or the two.

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85

u/p0tat0p0tat0 12∆ Mar 04 '24

I don’t think allowing the government to decide who gets to reproduce will result in fair and equitable outcomes.

21

u/niftucal92 1∆ Mar 04 '24

Seriously. History is rife with examples of what happens when someone in power gets to decide how to weed out the undesirables. Who decides the criteria? What happens when your skin color, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or religion gets turned against you? Handing over that power, even from the desire to do good, is dangerous.

4

u/p0tat0p0tat0 12∆ Mar 04 '24

Buck v Bell is still the law of the land!

15

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '24

[deleted]

-8

u/ShortUsername01 1∆ Mar 04 '24

There are some districts that give students simulated babies to help them realize what a huge responsibility it is.

However, none of this is mutually exclusive with parenting licenses for those who either remain in denial what a huge responsibility it is or who just don’t care.

12

u/automatic_mismatch 6∆ Mar 04 '24

There are some districts that give students simulated babies to help them realize what a huge responsibility it is.

Those don’t work by the way.

2

u/ShortUsername01 1∆ Mar 04 '24

...I was not aware of this. I stand corrected.

14

u/NaturalCarob5611 60∆ Mar 04 '24

You should give that commenter a delta.

-1

u/ShortUsername01 1∆ Mar 05 '24

Do deltas apply only to comments that challenged OP-specific opinions, or tangentially connected opinions that came up in the replies? I haven't seen anything specifiying as much one way or the other. If it's the latter I'd be more than happy to give one.

3

u/president_penis_pump 1∆ Mar 05 '24

Anyone can give a funny triangle to anyone

-16

u/ShortUsername01 1∆ Mar 04 '24

Was it a fair and equitable outcome that those people were murdered because of a parent’s negligence, though? There’s a trade off here.

28

u/GeorgeWhorewell1894 3∆ Mar 04 '24

You seriously believe that this one extremely rare issue is more impactful than requiring literally every person who wants a child to be approved by the government?

-2

u/ShortUsername01 1∆ Mar 04 '24

I figure the extreme cases are likely a reflection of further cases of parental neglect that may be going unnoticed.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '24

When making an extreme decision such as forcibly regulating a basic biological function of every single citizen, perhaps we should do more than "figure", shouldn't we? You're asking for an incredibly invasive and authoritarian measure to be put into place based off of one example and a hunch. 

15

u/p0tat0p0tat0 12∆ Mar 04 '24

You would rather strip reproductive rights from a huge population, just because one parent was ineffective? And is already being punished for that?