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Quote from mookie427 :taking bets on how long it'll be before the whole family is on The Jeremy Kyle Show.....

Hahahah, good one.
Quote from gezmoor :I think the law is just crazy if it even entertains the idea that a 14/15 year old girl has any rights when it comes to keeping a child. It's below the age of consent. By definition that means she isn't psychologically or emotionally mature enough to make the choice to even consent to sex in LAW, let alone being pregnant and giving birth !!!

Like I said, IMO kids under 16 should have no rights in this matter, (as that is the age that our society has picked, if it wants to amend it lower that's another argument). Pregnancies should be terminated as a matter of course under the age of consent as far as I'm concerned. In fact I think it should be enshrined in law that this happens. They're just kids, they need to be protected from themselves, and pissing their lives up the wall before it's even started is about as important as it gets in terms of protecting them from themselves as far as I'm concerned. To say nothing of the shit life the child is going to have.

Age of consent is to protect minors from sexual improprieties by adults, not between two minors. If two minors want to "get it on", then that's their initiative.

As for forced abortions for under-age mothers, that sounds very oppressive to me. As much as I dislike the idea of a 15 year-old having to mother a baby, forcing them to undergo abortion (which is a very traumatising experience for many would-be mothers) just doesn't seem right. The mother's parent's should at least be consulted and consent to the abortion.

IMHO, everyone should be given a chance at life. Yes, under-age parents have made a very serious mistake in life, but they aren't the only ones. With proper care and support, their children can be raised well and turn out well. The problem is the tendency for society to be critical of them without really doing much to help their situation.
@ Samjh



True.... And I know some young parents who are much better than some older ones i know, and maybe in some ways its better to parent a child young, ok, maybe not 15, but i think early 20s is fine if you're responsible and financially stable enough.
Why do people breed children in to shitty lives? That's what I don't understand, it's selfishness and ignorance. The child doesn't have a choice.
Tbh, you should be able to have children once you have both the mental capacity to take care of something (for most mature teenagers that's around 16 where people tend to go from "omg u r hot" relationships to "i actually like you", so there'll be a family unit), and when they have the financial means to do so, I reckon it's fine as long as you have a decent job or something.

The current 16 year old minimum age is probably fine, the smart 16 y/o's are wearing rubbers when they get it on, because they know they aren't ready for such a hold-down yet.
Quote from samjh :Age of consent is to protect minors from sexual improprieties by adults, not between two minors. If two minors want to "get it on", then that's their initiative.

No the age of consent is purely to do with emotional and psychological maturity and whether a person has the mental capacity to make an informed desicion about the total implications of having sex, (not just pregnancy). It is for the purposes of child protection as a whole, including from themselves, it is not purely to do with child protection from adults per se. Howerver, that is an obvious consequence of the legislation.

Quote :
As for forced abortions for under-age mothers, that sounds very oppressive to me. As much as I dislike the idea of a 15 year-old having to mother a baby, forcing them to undergo abortion (which is a very traumatising experience for many would-be mothers) just doesn't seem right.

It's a simple case of damage limitation IMO. Yes it would be traumatic for the mother to be. But I believe that's a fair price to pay in comparison with the trauma and anguish that will be experience by the mother and her family and most importantly the unborn child by being brought in to a world that is completely unable to deal with the situation. I just don't believe that any individual has the right to be that selfish.

Quote :
IMHO, everyone should be given a chance at life. Yes, under-age parents have made a very serious mistake in life, but they aren't the only ones.
With proper care and support, their children can be raised well and turn out well. The problem is the tendency for society to be critical of them without really doing much to help their situation.

You're right, with proper care and support the child may well turn out ok. The problem is that proper care and support just doesn't exist in these sitations.

a) The child having the baby is completely incapable to provide it.
b) The parents of that child are also completely incapable of providing it, as evidenced by the fact their own child is pregnant at that age.
c) Care homes are notoriously bad places for children to grow up and have a very bad record of bringing up well adjusted members of society.

Which leaves only one other option under these circumstance. Enforced Fostering. Problem there is the safeguards again aren't good enough to ensure a well brought up and adjusted individual.

I'm all for individual freedoms but there comes a point where it has to be balanced against the right of living in a society which doesn't have mal adjusted adults causing all sorts of problems.

But I come back to my main point and that being it's the unborn child that is the most important issue and kids just have no way of giving that child a fair "chance at life". Better that they don't see that life than have to live a sh*t one, (oh and for the benefit of any Pro-Lifers out there - a womans body terminates a potential life every month of their adult life from puberty to menopause).
Quote from gezmoor :It's a simple case of damage limitation IMO. Yes it would be traumatic for the mother to be. But I believe that's a fair price to pay in comparison with the trauma and anguish that will be experience by the mother and her family and most importantly the unborn child by being brought in to a world that is completely unable to deal with the situation. I just don't believe that any individual has the right to be that selfish.

...

You're right, with proper care and support the child may well turn out ok. The problem is that proper care and support just doesn't exist in these sitations.

a) The child having the baby is completely incapable to provide it.
b) The parents of that child are also completely incapable of providing it, as evidenced by the fact their own child is pregnant at that age.
c) Care homes are notoriously bad places for children to grow up and have a very bad record of bringing up well adjusted members of society.

Which leaves only one other option under these circumstance. Enforced Fostering. Problem there is the safeguards again aren't good enough to ensure a well brought up and adjusted individual.

I'm all for individual freedoms but there comes a point where it has to be balanced against the right of living in a society which doesn't have mal adjusted adults causing all sorts of problems.

But I come back to my main point and that being it's the unborn child that is the most important issue and kids just have no way of giving that child a fair "chance at life". Better that they don't see that life than have to live a sh*t one, (oh and for the benefit of any Pro-Lifers out there - a womans body terminates a potential life every month of their adult life from puberty to menopause).

I think you're generalising too much about the disadvantages faced by children brought up by teenage/adolescent parents.

Yes, statistically those children will end up with higher rates of child abuse, juvenile incarceration, among other things. But looking at raw statistics doesn't teach us anything about the reasons.

This is what I mean by society being critical and not doing enough to support children born to under-age parents (and the parents themselves). We look at statistics, make generalised assumptions about the unsuitability of the under-age parents to raise their child, and the later quality of life of that child, without really looking at the causes of why children born to under-age parents suffer from problems.

Children born to under-age parents don't suffer from problems purely because their parents are under-age. Otherwise, a large proportion of children born prior to the 1960s would have turned out to be just criminals, because in those days, being a parent at adolescence or even teenage years was not uncommon. One might even say it was more normal than not. In some cultures, it is indeed normal, but their children grow up just fine in those societies.

No. It's not just the age of the parents. Since around 1950, the age of parenthood has grown later and later. These days, most people have their first children at around the mid to late twenties or thirties. Careers, tertiary education, the desire to travel and have fun, etc., push parenting out of the way until later years in life than what was previously normal. What we consider normal age for parenting is governed not by mental capacity of the parents, but by artificial limitations imposed by social patterns. Age alone is not a root cause for under-age parenting problems - it's social perception.

Obviously it's necessary to be reasonable. I'm not advocating that ANY teenager should just go out and have a baby. In fact, I'd strongly discourage it. But not really because I consider teenagers to be unsuitable parents. The reason why I would personally discourage being a parent as a teenager or adolescent is because society does a horrifyingly poor job of dealing with the issue. My secondary reason is the capability of the under-age parents, but that difficulty is not nearly as difficult to overcome as my primary reason. As long as - and this is an important caveat - the under-age parents understand and accept the responsibility they have taken upon themselves, I see little reason why under-age parenthood should be considered an evil per se.

Instead of looking at all the failures, what we should be doing is examining the successful cases of under-age parenting, and what social services and parents (of the under-age parents) can do to ensure that under-age parents have the best means of raising their child. Acceptance, education, and support, is what's needed. Demonisation, painting under-age parents (and their parents) as mentally deficient, and stigmatising children born under such circumstances as bastards certainly doesn't help at all.

Under-age parenthood is not intrinsically bad (as long as the under-age parents understand and accept their responsibility). It's only as bad as what it is today, because modern social patterns make it so. Society can either do something proactive to solve the problem, or just try to cure the symptoms like squeezing pimples off an oily face. Too bad under-age pregnancies are not as simple as an acne problem.

Sorry for the rambling - I started typing and the thoughts just kept coming. Nothing personal.

==========================

Just to add something on-topic: I feel quite sorry for the poor boy in the article, Alfie. The girl seems to know what's going on, but the boy is just completely lost. In this situation, I think an abortion could have been justified. I have a feeling that the baby's not actually the boy's, but that's a whole new can of unholy mackerels!
Quote from samjh :
Under-age parenthood is not intrinsically bad (as long as the under-age parents understand and accept their responsibility). It's only as bad as what it is today, because modern social patterns make it so. Society can either do something proactive to solve the problem, or just try to cure the symptoms like squeezing pimples off an oily face. Too bad under-age pregnancies are not as simple as an acne problem.

I agree, your post was very good and was one of the few longer ones I read thoroughly.

Just thought I'd highlight the section I agreed most with ^.
They say that the 13 year old boy will join Fathers for Justice... I mean, he's already got his Spiderman outfit.
Bah ridiculous. News says DNA don't match.
so he's not the father?
You see, even the ugly girls sleep around. :rolleyes:
it's just a ****able object for every guy in that town
says something about the standards of the guys in that town. i.e. none..
Quote from Osco :says something about the standards of the guys in that country. i.e. none..

I'd said in the beginning of this thread, there's no way a 13 year old is shooting live rounds, guess I was proven right.
Quote from BlueFlame :I'd said in the beginning of this thread, there's no way a 13 year old is shooting live rounds, guess I was proven right.

Lol
Quote from chanoman315 :so he's not the father?

No, they came out ages ago, the young lad said parents on all sides told him to claim he was so they could sell the story.

Quote from gezmoor :You got to be kidding me ??

That's just BS.. There is no way that her parents wouldn't have noticed the bump on her a long time before 7 months.

You'd be surprised, there are a lot of cases (I am talking hundreds of thousands) where a pregnant child hid the pregnancy from her parents right through to birth and at times they did that in secret too. To think it is BS shows you're really not in touch with wimminz.
Quote :Pregnancies should be terminated as a matter of course under the age of consent as far as I'm concerned.

I recently read a poem by a girl who had had an abortion, she was not under the age of consent, and was writting about it some years after it happened. What struck me was the sense of murder that still carried as a burden on her emotionally. I am pro choice on the abortion issue, personally, but I don't know if I could handle an abortion personally. In many ways forcing an abortion would be just as cruel as allowing the pregnancy, from this point of view, I think it better the child is given the choice as to which way they want to screw their life up, at the end of the day, it is their consciounce.

I know what i'd do.
this little man should be glad he´s not the father..
my actual girlfriend has a child too (no it is not from me) and i really had to think about this very long.

I mean im 18 and i never thought about beeing father with this age, but after some time you learn to deal with it. Im really thankful to my girlfriend because she dont see me as father and looks to not give me that much work with the baby (even when i dont have a problem with it).

Its even not a joke with 18 so i dont want to know how it feels when your 12 / 13 lol.
The story is quite shocking, but

Quote from gezmoor :Like I said, IMO kids under 16 should have no rights in this matter, (as that is the age that our society has picked, if it wants to amend it lower that's another argument). Pregnancies should be terminated as a matter of course under the age of consent as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe also a separate study in schools: girls schools, boys schools? What do you think will teach people living in real life if not life itself? Ask people who had troubles in their life and took responsibility: this taught them a lot of things.

Someone says "ruined their life". That's bs. By the age of 20~21 the girl and the real father will be much more mature than college graduates unless their parents or social services put them in kinda greenhouse, or the buzz around will make them crazy.

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