I disagree with incarcerating them unless they commit what fell into the category of a crime in 1990. I've read too many reports of women in mental health wards and facilities for feeble minded people raped in hospitals and nursing homes in the past to think that's a good idea, short term or otherwise. However, I am open to the idea of forcibly sterilizing women and men who create children out of wedlock to prevent them from creating further liabilities for society.
Shouldn't the punishment fit the crime though?
Children who have a parade of strange men through their life are astronomically more likely to be molested or otherwise physically abused when there's no biological father in the picture.
Now, I'm in no way advocating rape, but a grown woman is able to decide who to spread her legs for. Her children, on the other hand, are subject to her obviously poor choice in men and they have little to no agency in their situation.
I think the problem is how we differ in our understanding of the definitions of mother and father, so I will clarify as I understand it.
A mother and father are any physically healthy reproductive age female and male, respectively, that can copulate and produce offspring. This doesn't necessarily mean they also possess the psychological capacity to rear the resulting offspring to an age where they might fend for themselves.
In short, any woman and man can become a mother and father respectively given our physiology, this doesn't mean they will be effective/competent parents, i.e. mom's and dad's.
I don't disagree with that argument.
But punishing bad behavior is something we as a society do, in many cases regardless of mental health concerns. These people would still get their day in court.
But allowing children to be put into harms way repeatedly should come with a serious possibility of a long term prison sentence, no matter what mitigating factors are at play.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point. I'll reread this when I get home.
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