License To Have Children: Limit the number of children per family?

[aasim]

No i don't think that there should be license to have kids, this is a gift of god(general)..and about how many children to have its up to the couple if they can look after their kids. If a license is imposed then just imagine how many couples in the world have to take in a day... We cannot be a dictator...

[Geminiamp]

I don't know about a license that's taking things too far but I do agree that there are people out there that shouldn't have children. Here in the US we have an agency called Children's Protective Service and they step in when a problem is reported and some do lose their children. But then they just go and have more and I think that those people that have children taken away shouldn't be allowed to keep any future children either.

[ppcmaniac]

This is most definitely a controversial issue, and my views may border on the extreme, but yes! Yes, couples should have a apply for a license to have children and not only that, couples should have a psychological screening as well.

Watching the local news this morning, I saw where a mother was being moved from a prison mental institution to another specialized facility to proceed further with her treatment. Now, keep in mind that this woman had been found 'not' guilty in the trial of the death of her toddler for severing both of the babies arms due to reason of insanity . What's insane was the fact that this woman was allowed to have children in the first place. Making couples apply for a license to have children and a subjected them to psychological exams could have prevented such a heinous act from being purpetrated(sp?) in the first place.

[MattChow]

I don't believe that we need license to have kids. It sound like getting a license to own a gun or a business, its really weird for me. In order to protect/shield the kids to abuses from parents or step-parents, there needs to be a strict law prohibiting such and providing for a real stiff penalty or punishment to those who break the law. Bearing kids is a gift from God, we should not bar nor hinder it. Not everybody can even experience the thrill of having kids, right.

[Marth]

They already have this in China. The 1 child limit. Because god wasn't thinking clearly & made it possible to have 10 kids per couple :\. That might just lead to overpopulation.. This would never work in America, it goes against a lot of freedoms our country stands for. Is it encouraged to have 0-2 kids though? Yes

[bluesnow]

Originally Posted by cinbadd

No. I do not believe parents should be required to have a license to have children. What would be the criteria? Who would decide? How would the rules be enforced-- and by whom? Aside from the fact that it would be denying people basic, fundamental human rights, it would set the stage for corruption beyond belief.

i agree with you. I think that it would be really hard to judge whether a family is capable of bringing up and providing the best for a child. The criteria can't be only based on the income of a family since material comforts doesn't mean that the family will be able to spend quality time with the child and a child will need the necessary care and concern from their parents. Its quite hard to judge the true character of a person too, so the filtering process would be too complicated.

I think that it is the responsibility of the family to take care of their children. Making it compulsory for license is a bit too much.... In the case of China, its considered more of a disincentive for families to have more than 1 child, so thats quite alright for me....

[Walker]

It is in fact a good idea to regulate the child birth..especially in poor countries...where children are born due to ignorance of uneducated people of using preventive measures during sex.

It is alright to think of a regulation but implementing the same ...is altogether is most times very difficult.

How can you regulate and give license for a child birth?..It is like giving license to people to breathing air.....lol

People will plead ignorance and say..The child was born by mistake....What can law do ...then? Put the parents behind bars and leave new born to feed for himself?

Hence...it is practically impossible to do so....

Regards,

Walker

[zowie]

There is already a licensing procedure in place. It is called marriage. But it is optional. So people tend to get this license or not as per their personal choice.

If you want the government to control the decision as to sterilize some one or not, how are you going to determine whether I can have kids or not?

Originally Posted by Naphtali

Do you think couples should be required to have a license to have children? You hear so much about parents shaking their kids and not taking care of them which has lead to death. Taking care of a child is so much more important than driving a car so why not have couples get a license to have a child? I also thing that there should be a limit to how many children a couple can have. I just think it's a smart thing to do in order to save the environment and watch out for overpopulation. I just think that having children is a privilege and not an entitlement.

[Aleiah]

I am not in favor of this proposal, getting a license to have kids. there should be a massive information dissemination instead to young people and also to those who are getting married about family planning, the effects of getting a big family to a smaller one. proper guidance and good information can help people how to regulate size of family, thus, can give a better future to their kids and less problems with abuses and maltreatment. kids get to live a better life also.

[oxis]

For me, it's not a matter of putting limit to the number of children a couple should have nor is it a matter of requiring a license for them to bear a child. It's the way they think of their future and their children's future that matters. Producing a more number of children is not mainly a desire to form a home but merely a desire to satisfy the flesh, except for some who manage to think of the consequence prior to doing it.

[ro1e]

It's really sad that we hear about many cases of parents that abuse their children, and even murder them.
But I do not think that it is possible to request a license from any person that wants to be a parent.
However it is possible to do a watchful eye and ear to report as soon as there is suspicion of parents like that.

[ZammaJann]

The right to reproduce is a basic human right. It is the reason we are here. Any talk of having a license in order to exercise your reproductive right, or forced sterilization is repulsive.

Now I agree that there are too many parents out there without sufficient education. We should be providing more education and support to parents. There are also parents who know better and are abusive would a license prevent this abuse? Besides, what do you propose we do, Sterilize everyone who does not obtain the necessary baby permit?

[Kofi]

I think that getting a license before having children will be a good idea for example in Africa. Africans are poor but the major cause of Africa's poverty is overpopulation. One man can have as many as 30 children without the ability to cater for them. Bringing such children into this world is like punishment those innocent children because you are just bringing them to suffer in this cruel world for no fault of theirs which I think isn't right. Child slavery and child trafficking is on the rise in Africa just because parents of these children do not have what it takes to cater for them and hence sell them into slavery and sometimes push them into prostitution and so forth.

[cena_john]

The idea behind this is very true that there is a lot of say about parents not taking good care of their children. It is also true that children are the gift of god and a privilege to have. But practically implementing this idea seems a little bit odd. Yes, we definitely need to keep a restriction on the number of children in countries like India and china where overpopulation is a problem

[Ziveeman]

I would like for there to be a license in order to have children, but I believe that human reproduction is a natural right, so as much as there SHOULD be a license, there shouldn't be as well.

What countries need to do is increase education and help those in need. There are a lot of poor people out there that could get help but instead are being pushed away in favor of funding wars or other useless things.

[mteager]

No way should there be a license to have children. how are you suppose to tell if someone will be a good parent, until they actually are a parent. There should be more efficient social services and maybe meetings with psychiatrists as well as the regular check ups for the baby.

And as for limits on the amount of children, why would that be a good idea when a lot of developed countries actually have an aging and therefore declining population. Not much sense there really.

[jessika]

this is a really nice and logical concept of having a lisense for giving birth to children. this will help in population reduction by imposing a restriction on people on legal grounds. it will give a right to give birth only according to the financial condition and not the will to have more and more kids even if there are not enough resources to support them. o really want this law to be implemented as soon as possible.

[nishant20]

it may sound foolish but applying for a license before giving birth to a child is a good idea
we know most of the child population are given enough care, love and education which they need for their development but there are still a considerable amount of parent population who leave their children after birth mainly because they can't take care of them or also because they may be wanting a boy child and after birth, it happens to be a girl child

[vishrut]

I guess each couple must be allowed to have children but a maximum of two children. Its necessary so as to control population.

This problem of parents not taking care of children mainly occurs in illiterate families, so I must say we have to provide free education to everyone about the harms of not caring children and having more than two children.

[Ami69]

This is a good idea but not in every case. Consider a country like Russia where the government instead gives allowances to married couples depending on the number of children they have. The more children you have, the more allowances you get. If you are getting allowances in this way, then you need license but on the other hand, India does not do this and hence you cannot determine the number of children a couple must have or that a couple needs a license before they can produce children.

[sanil09]

Well i don't think this is a good idea. but one child per family strategies can be adopted like china is doing to solve the problem of over population. this can be adopted in Africa also who is facing hunger problem and still have 2-3 children to look after

[Blueroses]

I do not feel that child birth should be licensed, but I do feel that “social workers” should be held more accountable for their neglect and abuse of our nation's children. A lot of the abuse seen in the news is due to social workers ignoring obvious problems or due to social workers taking children from non-abusive parents and putting them in foster homes or with adoptive parents all in the name of “increasing federal funding”.

[BCRoller]

No, I don't think anyone should need a license to have children but I do think that there should be better systems in place to assure that those children are well provided and cared for. Sure, there are ministries out there that have social workers to deal with child protection issues but, unfortunately, that is far from enough. In addition, I think social workers need more training and "hands-on" experience to even be considered social workers to begin with. Like Blueroses said above, much of the "care" the ministry provides is simply there to increase federal funding rather than sincerely care for those who honestly need it and that, in itself, needs to change.

Why do people have 6, 10, 12, or more children? Because in days gone by, children often died before reaching adulthood. Disease, War, Famine, Accidents, Wild Animal Attacks,..... .
For this reason, Families would be large in order to ensure a higher likelyhood that some of
your children would survive. Also, the more children you had, the more grown children you'd
have to take care of you in your old age.
Also many Religions encourage larger families in an effort to grow their membership and thus their power.
In this day and age, large families are just irresponsible. The human population is growing at such an accelerated rate that we are pushing into the habitats of other species of animals and plants. Often we drive these other species to extinction in order to occupy the
lands they do or in order to feed ourselves. As we look around us, we see basic necessities
such as fresh water becoming scarce. Much of the water, air, land, food we rely on to survive, are becoming increasingly more polluted by our waste products or by the processes by which we choose to produce our goods.
In the Judeao-Christian holy text, we read that the Creator commanded that we go forth, be fruitfull and multiply. That we be good stewards of the planet. We seem to have forgetten all but the multiply part of these commandments.

These days, children are having children. How do we expect parents to raise children into mentally & emotionaly mature children when the parents are still mentally and emotionaly children themselves.
Some Women have children as a means of keeping a man they feel they can't live without.
Some Men get women pregnant as a means of making them stay in an abusive relationship.
Some people have children because they believe it's just what you're supposed to do.
Some of the Older generation or peers pressure others into having children by expectations
or constant comments of why you haven't had any yet. Don't you know you aren't getting any younger. The biological clock is ticking. tick tock, tick tock....... .

You have to have a license to drive, or to cut hair. It is my beliefe that through counceling
and licensing, we can ensure that at the very least, people stop to think of what they are doing when thinking of bringing a life into this world, before they actually do it.
I've read reports of women in other parts of the world, living in poverty and hunger, who get pregnant because they aren't permitted to use or ask for the use of contraceptives.
Often they are affraid that their man will beat them if they ask him to use a condem, because he will think she doesn't trust him. Suddenly she finds herself with not only a mouth she can't feed or the energy to keep up with the child but she finds herself with AIDS or some other life threatening disease.
Afghanistan was recently in the news, for passing a law that forbids women from refusing their men sexual contact. It permits the punishment of women who do refuse sex, often by stoning them.
Some people would have laws passed that forbade people from seeking abortions or even from seeking contraceptives, yet these very same people would cry out in anger if thier tax dollars were being used to support the massive number of unwanted children or of children born to families too poor to support them.
What are our priorities? Continue growing the population faster and faster; or finaly decide, we multiplied more than enough, it's time we check out this being good stewards of the planet thing.

I don't believe that a license to have a child is necessary, but I do believe that the number of children a woman can have should be limited - not a strict limitation, but a strongly suggested limitation. By offering more benefits to families with children, such as free education through college, and free health care, but cutting these benefits off if the family has more than two or three children, people would be 'strongly suggested' to have fewer children. Additionally, after the second or third child, a women should be offered a FREE proceedure to prevent further pregnencies, ie. cutting her tubes.
If a family has the financial means to support many children, they can continue to have children, but it should be noted that these, often highly educated, individuals often have fewer children already. Women on welfare should be FORCED to have their birthing ability abolished after the second child is born - preventing further burden on society. Uneducated individuals tend to have more children and continue to have children in order to continue receiving money from the government. It is essential that the government help these children, but the number of children in this situation MUST be limited, and when it is, more money will be available to support the offer of free education and free health care. Women have children in hospitals, and when the government is paying for the proceedure, they have the right to prevent having to pay for it over and over again - simply laproscopically cutting the womans tubes.
How do we convince the government to put such a plan in place, and how do we convince the people to accept such a plan?!?!?

[chris20]

If I'm not mistaken, there's a country implementing a law that prohibits couples to have too many children. That makes abortion in their country to be legal. Unfortunately, their way of preventing overpopulation is not supported by Catholic countries.

Personally, I would like to have a license before having a child. This will surely prevent the continuous population growth of our nation. The downfall of which will be involved with abortion.

[Jenelle]

We don't need to limit the number of children in a family. The thing is as long as the parents can support their children equally. As long as the kids will have their own primary rights, then its fine.

[Padalda]

Now a days , population is the main problem of almost all the countries. I think the couples should follow the rule - We Two and Ours Two . Moreover the licensing system will not be more appreciable from my point of view.

In my opinion, I think that license before children is a good idea especially in countries like China where overpopulation is driving young boys and girls into prostitution and armed robbery. 2 children per family in my opinion is the best for the couple and for the entire world.

The truth is that the whole world needs to reduce the number of people living on the planet. We do not have the resources to continue on the path we are. We consume more resources then the world can put back and we cause harm to the planet.

Its not just about land either. The amount of resources a person takes on the planet is not about how much space they take, its food, water, resources, etc....

We are too large already and if we could reduce the population of the planet by 10-20% then we might buy ourselves the time to invent and create ways to solve all the other issues out there. A 1-2 child per family rule would be very helpful. It would also be nice for Organized Religions to encourage this sort of restriction.