A PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT.

I have some strong views on people’s right to become parents. It’s my belief that in fact parenthood isn’t a right but a privilege which should be withdrawn from damaged people who have committed gross acts of child abuse or who have been negligent when it comes to caring for their children.

These days nobody need have children if they so choose. Contraception has never been more readily available and those who have children have the responsibility to ensure that they grow up in a safe and loving environment, where they can be taught to become useful and productive citizens when they reach adulthood.

Yesterday I heard on the news yet one more appalling case of gross and monstrous child cruelty perpetrated against a small and vulnerable baby who had his back broken and was paralysed as a result. He suffered rib fractures and mercifully, given the circumstances, died as a result but he shouldn’t have had his life cut short in this way and he had the right which in my opinion takes preference over his parents’ right to have produced him, to have been able to grow up without being violated.

Doubtless there will be some do Gooding crackpot who may read this who will bleat about how these poor people need to be understood as they must have been badly treated themselves to have even thought of doing this to another. Possibly, you may say definitely, this is likely to be true. That being the case, as soon as he was known to be at risk these people should have been offered the choice of being given corrective treatment or having their child removed. Refusal in my view should result in them being compulsorily sterilised or imprisoned for life as Myra Hindley was without the prospect of their being released except into their coffins and thus bound either for the grave yard or crematorium. Society should send out the strongest message possible to these people who barely deserve the term human, to the effect that gross acts of abuse against children will not be tolerated.

It’s unfashionable these days to speak of evil but if good exists and few would dispute that it does, its opposite – Namely evil must also. There are some, and I have met them, who enjoy exercising power over weaker individuals be they children, disabled people or those with mental health problems. If the people who do these things have themselves got mental health problems as a result of their own childhood experiences and it cannot be established that they can be fully cured or successfully treated then we should err on the side of caution for the sake of their offspring. In my “not everything is meant for everybody” philosophy I’m afraid I do subscribe to the view that some should forego their so-called right to reproduce. We don’t have the right to refuse to wear a seat belt or drive on the wrong side of the road. Neither do we have the right to smoke in a public place any longer on the grounds that our actions damage other people’s health besides our own. We do have duties though – Another dirty word in this liberal society – A duty to those we bring into the world who haven’t asked to come.

All my life I have been sickened by the never ending catalogue of cases of child abuse, ranging from that of Maria Caldwell to Jasmine Beckford and Victoria Climbie. In her case her aunt who didn’t in fact give birth to her most definitely should remain imprisoned for life. Most people know whether their experiences have damaged them and those whose judgement in such matters is damaged too so that they don’t know should have the choice made for them by society if it wishes to call itself civilised. It’s obvious to me when some idiot stands up, orders an enquiry, wastes public money on yet another report which further damages the rain forests and then some other fool from Social Services can’t decide just how much the child is at risk and whether the parents’ human rights need protecting, and then says:

“We must make sure this never happens again”

that nobody can actually ensure it will not happen again and it’s a dead certainty that it will. After every shocking case which sickens me to my stomach and I hear these words trotted out once more I always mumble:

“Till the next time”

Under my breath and guess what! I’m sadly proved right time and again.

If you disagree with me which of course you have the right to do, tell me then what was your attitude to the lifetime imprisonment of Myra Hindley who hurt other people’s children? Shouldn’t we be as zealous with regard to people who hurt their own? Yes. Yes and Yes again. Anyone prepared to abuse another in this way, leading either to permanent disability or death for their victim foregoes their claim to human rights in the matter of being able to reproduce and you know what? I don’t give a stuff about whether they are deprived of this right or not, what I do care about is the appalling and needless suffering undergone by a blameless little individual who couldn’t choose to forego his or her right not to be lumbered with monstrous parents.