I am against all licensing. — Pfhorrest
but I think that they should be punished in proportion to the harm they cause -- — Pfhorrest
Are you going to punish people for having unprotected sex? — Pfhorrest
That's going to require an enormous invasion of privacy to be effectual at all. — Pfhorrest
In any case, do you force an abortion on them? — Pfhorrest
Even if you don't, then what? Do you take the children away from them? — Pfhorrest
Children raised in institutional environments generally fare worse than even the averagely-badly-parented child, so that seems contrary to the intended purpose of protecting the children. — Pfhorrest
Do you let the parents keep the children, and just jail one or both of them? Both seems obviously problematic — Pfhorrest
In theory, an idea with lots of merit. I don't know the details, but did not the Chinese attempt something like? Better, imo, although a slightly different topic, is a program of incentives for learning to be good parents (and not bad ones), for applying that training, and for not having a child, or too many children.why we should not licence procreation, given that we licence adoption? — Bartricks
So much for the possibility of coming out of the gutter to do great things, and in doing so helping the gutter people rid themselves of some of the gutter-ness all at the same time. — creativesoul
spurious presupposition that we know what the direct consequences of our decision will be. — creativesoul
Likewise, then, we should not permit those who lack the requisite skills to be a good parent (which would include things such as a healthy, demonstrably stable relationship, IQ above a certain level, and a stable financial and emotional situation) to breed. — Bartricks
I don't know the details, but did not the Chinese attempt something like? — tim wood
The reason why we - that is, why civilized people - license these activitites is fairly obvious: do them badly and you can cause others enormous harm. — Bartricks
any idea, that government can make close intrusion below the belt is unpalatable, — tim wood
The problem I have with this idea is what is the best way to raise a child. Once you were a poor parent if you didn’t instil Christian values in them. What sort of values should they have? And how would you prove someone has the prerequisites you mention? A licence suggests that the state knows what’s best for you. — Brett
Now the thing about licensing; of course some people are going to have kids without permission — Mark Dennis
These people will rather immigrate from elsewhere, gradually outnumber you, and then, sooner or later, simply get rid of you. — alcontali
The policy does not have to make substantial assumptions about what the best kind of parenting involves, only what the worst kind involves. Just as driving licences are not designed to ensure that only the best drivers drive, but to stop the worst kind from doing so. — Bartricks
Adoption certain presents tests for parents. But they are asking to get kids that the government has custody of. The government is in loco parentis (sic, likely). So as an already existing parent, it wants to make sure it is handing over the child, who is also already alive and here, to someone who has the potential to do well. Biological parents create their own child. There is no one giving them that child and passing on responsibility. — Coben
We licence pilots because of the terrible harm a totally incompetent pilot can wreak on others. — Bartricks
How do you see this panning out with licensing for parents? What would be the consequences? — Brett
If the entities that manifested in the planes were the pilots' people, in the sense we think of children being the parents', and these appearing out of nowhere passengers were the creations of those pilots' bodies or actions somehow, and those are the only passengers on these planes, honestly I have no idea how to think of that. I don't know what that is. I don't know where to begin thinking about that.Well, wouldn't we still think it right and proper to licence the pilots of these planes? — Bartricks
In fact, we use a lot of drone technology already, which is safer, better, and cheaper, but we do not use it for commercial passenger flights, the reason being the seventy-year old totally outdated regulations that were suitable for 1950ies technology, but which are still around today.
Seriously, we simply do not need pilots. — alcontali
So yes, we do in fact still need pilots. — Mark Dennis
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