Should people take a test before they Have Children?
It is not hard to notice that most people who have a large number of children seem to be poorer and largely uneducated. Although birth control is available to everyone, via planned parenthood and/or classes in school about sexuality, it appears that people who are uneducated or come from a lower social class do not get the information they need to make smart choices with regard to having children. The trouble with this type of ignorance is it breeds more ignorance and continues the cycle of poorer people having larger families.
I am certainly not interested in casting aspersions on people for the amount of children they choose to have or on the income they make. Nor am commenting that their lack of education creates stupid children. What bothers me is that when these people bring said children into a world of difficulty, ignorance and sometimes co-dependence on a system that is already overwrought and underfunded. These parents do not consider the long term effects of their decision with regard to the opportunities they can afford their children and their ability to parent them successfully due to their limited means.
So, should there be some sort of "test" or classes people should undergo prior to having children that would show their ability to succeed at the level the child needs? After all to adopt a child it takes much screening and sometimes years of waiting to be certain the people adopting would be worthy parents. Of note one can see that most people who are more educated usually choose to have 1-2 children to replace them (so to speak). Since it costs about $100-200K to feed, educated, clothe a child from infancy to age eighteen, we know that larger families do not have the resources to care for the amount of children born into their poorer families.
The tragedy of the entire idea is that should we resolve to implement such a test or mandatory class, it will infringe on the human rights of the individual. We cannot even sterilize a woman who is a drug addict and welfare abuser because it infringes upon the rights of the woman. Society has to pay not only for the care of these innocents, but also must deal with the affects of the drugs on the child and the emotional and physical injuries that many of them will face in their lives, dependent upon their home situations.
How do we even discuss this without sounding prejudiced, elitist or snobby? If society continues to bring uninformed, uneducated and unwanted children into this world, what kind of society are we agreeing to inhabit?