Men's Club.. Parental Rights

Today, the Men's Club and Divas address a serious subject. I was asked again by everyone's favorite fish to add my take. Hmmm... it's one that I have no familiarity with, but I do have some thoughts about it. If you don't agree, that's cool... write your own response, and trackback to me, or send me the link... I'll link to ya. Just keep things civil here... it's supposed to be a comfortable atmosphere. You start raising too much hell, and I'll have to crack a beer stien over your skull. Of course, that would be done in a very friendly manner....

Today's discussion is about parental rights. More specifically, whether the biological father of an unborn child should have the right to block a woman's abortion. And, should she have an abortion and not inform the the father, should she be subject to damages for her failure to disclose prior to termination of the pregnancy? Yes, serious topics, indeed. Not really my style of posting, but then again, I was asked, I'll post.

Should a biological father have the right to block a woman's abortion? While I would like to say "yes," I know the answer is "no." As far as I know, he has no legal right to make a call regarding her body. Now, I've got to write about this as it would apply to me. I would like to think that I would never be put in this situation. Gott knows, I would love to hatch little drunkards one day and I'd like to think that the woman who would choose to hang with me would feel the same. Should something happen where she would try to abort, I would like to be consulted, at the least. It's not something that I would want to happen... I'd hope that if we had been far enough into the relationship to spawn, we would have better communication. We're both supposed to be big kids now.

Now should she choose to dispose of a future That 1 Kid, and not inform me of her decision... well, all I know for sure is that I'd be crushed. I don't know that I would try to seek damages, even if one could. I do know that there are some spiteful decisions that have been made... I could understand someone trying to seek some sort of justice for a decision made out of spite. But I don't know that it would do anyone any good. It's a painful scenario... a painful thought.

Again, I would hope that I would never have to deal with these decisions... I don't know how well I'd do.

Crap... rereading this, I realize that I haven't really said much. It looks as if I sidestepped the issue. Maybe I did, though unintentional.

For more educated views, check out the rest: The Ladies, Kathy, at Cake Eater Chronicles, Silk, at Just Breathe, Phoenix, at Villians Vanquished, and guest Diva, Ruth, of Chaos Theory.
The Gents: The Maximum Leader, at Naked Villainy, Jamesy, at The Future's Bright, Stigmata, at Project Bowl, and, of course, Phin, at Phin's Blog.

There may be some others... I'll link as I get them.

Posted by That 1 Guy at October 27, 2005 04:52 PM