# Should people be screened & certified 2 make babies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 2, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436 "2007-06-02T01:10:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/101 "2007-06-05T19:52:55Z")
I don’t know about that. I keep up with the right-wing crowd pretty closely, being a card-carrying member and all, and I can’t tell where that came from at all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/102 "2007-06-05T20:35:25Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] I don’t know about that. I keep up with the right-wing crowd pretty closely, being a card-carrying member and all, and I can’t tell where that came from at all. [/QUOTE] Here’s [Koppel defending himself](http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=64904) back in 2004 from criticism about the show. But I’m just guessing here. I don’t know what \*\*GuyNblueJeans \*\* actually had in mind. I was just trying to think about the biggest controversery involving Koppel that I’d heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/103 "2007-06-06T19:53:58Z")
[QUOTE=mswas] **GuyNBlueJeans** You may not be aware of this, but the rate of demographic increase is going down almost everywhere in the world. Every first world nation is in demographic decline, except for the United States which maintains replacement rate via immigration. [/QUOTE] Sterilizing some number of people who want to have kids is going to lead to further demographic decline, for obvious reasons. And how many people are going to want to immigrate to a country that might sterilize them against their will? My guess is, not many. I would guess that such a country would have a net outflow of emigrants, actually, as people left the country to escape sterilization. If you have a below-replacement birth rate and very few immigrants, then you really have a demographic problem. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/104 "2007-06-06T20:03:41Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] Here’s [Koppel defending himself](http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=64904) back in 2004 from criticism about the show. But I’m just guessing here. I don’t know what \*\*GuyNblueJeans \*\* actually had in mind. I was just trying to think about the biggest controversery involving Koppel that I’d heard of. [/QUOTE] Uh huh. But that’s a pretty old controversy, and Ted Koppel is now retired and doing other things. In any case, I’m not going to parse the thoughts of our OP. I only took Psych 101 in college, so I’m not really trained to do so. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/105 "2007-06-09T00:15:34Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I’ll probably regret asking this, but why is Ted Koppel on that list? [/QUOTE] Ah! [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8660158&postcount=106) why! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/106 "2007-06-09T00:47:11Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Ah! [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8660158&postcount=106) why! [/QUOTE] Ah. It’s because he’s a race traitor then. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/107 "2007-06-09T01:03:08Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] Ah. It’s because he’s a race traitor then. My bad. [/QUOTE] Well, I don’t know if the label really applies, [Koppel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Koppel) being Jewish. (Are Jews white? Technically, yes, but . . .) ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/108 "2007-06-09T03:49:54Z")
Buh? Was there a point behind that bizarre tirade? If so, I didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Chataway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Chataway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chataway)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/109 "2007-06-09T04:59:50Z")
I understand your point. There are people out there that shouldn’t be having children. But, we aren’t practicing a form of genocide. However, there are the Darwin awards - if you die some very stupid way - some dumb ass stunt that gets you dead - and you have not reproduced, you get a Darwin for not passing on the stupid gene. [http://www.darwinawards.com/](http://www.darwinawards.com/) Check it out. It’s for real. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/110 "2007-06-11T21:55:50Z")
Yes, but just the ones who use any trace of leet in an SDMB thread title. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/111 "2007-06-18T18:35:24Z")
[rant] As soon as someone invents a reliable, reversible, long-term contraceptive measure (and we’ll need one for both sexes), I will give my wholehearted support for keeping everyone in the nation in a state of sterility until they have undergone certification. This process will involve reams of paperwork and take at least a couple of weeks. Each prospective parent will need to be recertified every time they want to have a child. Every application will be approved. The SOLE purpose of all this is to make sure people actually **think** about the fact that they will have a kid to take care of for the next 20 years, as opposed to “oh, I’m pregnant, let’s keep it, babies are cute”. [/rant] I’ve just been spending too much time around overtired, attention-starved, whiney kids whose too-young 20something parents can’t be bothered to get off the phone and actually **interact** with their offspring rather than just telling them to shut up, can you tell? JRB ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436/112 "2007-06-19T16:10:04Z")
[QUOTE=JR Brown] [rant] As soon as someone invents a reliable, reversible, long-term contraceptive measure (and we’ll need one for both sexes), I will give my wholehearted support for keeping everyone in the nation in a state of sterility until they have undergone certification. This process will involve reams of paperwork and take at least a couple of weeks. Each prospective parent will need to be recertified every time they want to have a child. Every application will be approved. The SOLE purpose of all this is to make sure people actually **think** about the fact that they will have a kid to take care of for the next 20 years, as opposed to “oh, I’m pregnant, let’s keep it, babies are cute”. [/rant] I’ve just been spending too much time around overtired, attention-starved, whiney kids whose too-young 20something parents can’t be bothered to get off the phone and actually **interact** with their offspring rather than just telling them to shut up, can you tell? JRB [/QUOTE] Of course, libertarians of even the mildest sort will object violently on principle. Racists and paleoconservatives and more moderate cultural nationalists will object because this regime naturally will be unenforceable on illegal immigrants, inasmuch as the latter live under the radar in any case – if the government can’t even detect their presence so as to get them out of the country, how is the government supposed to control their breeding? – and just as things stand now the paleocons are worried sick about “Western civilization” (i.e., the white race) being swamped and marginalized by Latinos, etc., who breed more prolifically. And I personally will object for similar reasons because the regime would be unenforceable on the kind of home-schooling religious extremists who have their kids delivered by midwives so they can duck out before filling out the birth certificate. I sure as hell don’t want **them** having any differential reproductive success! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-be-screened-certified-2-make-babies/406436.md?page=5)