Quote Originally Posted by ashlesha View Post
How to pass would be common knowledge and people would cheat all the time. Also the follow-up of sterilizing people or forcing them to maintain birth control would be a big complicated issue.
1.) Well few systems are perfect (read: optimal), even though that should be the ideal. There will likely always be chinks in the armor that the particularly nimble and crafty can exploit; it just must be effective enough to make a difference. There are plenty of people who don't deserve a driver's licence that still manage to get their hands on one. But imagine the potential damage if licences weren't required at all. At the end of the day, it's all about risk mitigation.

2.) And sterilizations are perhaps a step farther than I'd go--which is why I said "Gattica-lite." lol Even though there could be a case made for those who continually push out children without the resources (physically, mentally, financially) to adequately provide for them. But then could potentially put a target on the back of certain (high risk) demographics and then it all becomes far more ethically problematic, even if icily practical and logical if maintaining balance for the "whole" is the aim.

In this hypothetical scenario, I'd also think that before (if we possess the adequate technology) or after a child was born, there would be "how to" guidelines or some rubric tailored to the child's own cognitive/psychological needs. And as long as the parent has all of the required means to sufficiently support a child's development (in the best way for that particular child), then perhaps more people wouldn't be kept from rearing children. Sometimes it's not that the parents are inherently bad in so much as they don't know how to deal with their child as an individual (with different needs, makeup, etc...).

Quote Originally Posted by ashlesha View Post
Maybe I have a knee jerk reaction to throw bolts in this because at 17 years old I was not exactly on the approved list lol but I love my son and he's a great kid.
I'd wager you're a great mom. I don't worry as much about people like you, so much as people like me. lol If a child doesn't come with an instruction manual, than count me out. I like (some) kids but prefer cats, fish, and Siri. lol However, not everyone has my degree of self awareness concerning my limitations. Some don't know what they are capable of and can do irreparable damage.

Having said that, I don't think parents are supposed to be perfect because their parents weren't perfect and their parents before them; I honestly believe that most try the best they can but sometimes the best is not good enough. And so there must be check and balances put into place to ensure a certain standard is maintained > don't create people who become societal drains (murderers, con artists, do-nothings, leeches, etc...).

Quote Originally Posted by ashlesha View Post
Some people definitely shouldn't be parents, true, but I wonder if they'd be adequately weeded out with testing (and if potentially good parents would be cut out). I feel like a libertarian, wtf.
If for every 1 "good" parent weeded out, 1,000 "bad" ones were, wouldn't that still be preferable?