Price of Blood [Worm fanfic] (Complete)

I don't see that. Yes, Carol neither likes nor trusts Amy, but the vast majority of her neglect was by omission rather than commission. Amy got schooling, bed and board, and clothing. The Dallons never told her about Marquis, but to be fair, she never asked. Nor was she physically or verbally abused. I don't see where the 'felony level' aspect comes in.

 

It probably has a lot to do with the horrifying levels of fucked up Amy is, combined with the implications of what little we do see. As noted in the post you quoted, the level of fucked up she is strongly influences edale's judgement that it's felony levels of emotional neglect.

What little we see of Carol and the girls she raised is a good case for requiring psychological tests before being allowed to raise children, but it would almost be politically impossible to get such a law passed in RL, much less in Worm (and if it were passed, it could be horrifyingly open to abuse, itself - which is one of the reasons it would not pass). To be fair to Carol, though, she tried to refuse, she said that it would not work, and her beloved and trusted sister convinced her to do it, anyway (if she saw the parallel there, she might have started seeing Amy as her daughter before the Birdcage - yes, Sarah didn't need mind control to do it, but that's due to the way Carol is fucked up).

 

While I largely agree with your stance re: Amy and Vicky, emotional neglect is a form of mistreatment, and it will fuck someone up quite thoroughly. Just ask any woman with Daddy issues and a string of bad relationships.

 

Hell no. Just Hell the Fuck No. Psychological testing is imminently fallible and able to be gamed. It wouldn't be capable of providing valid results for this scenario.

 

Personally, I think that potential parents should have to study for, and pass, a test before they're ever allowed to have kids. Little things like "how to change a diaper" and "CPR for infants" as well as leaving a noisemaker in the next room that goes off every three hours that they have to pick up and cuddle to make it quiet down.

Also, things like basic training on treating kids equally, proportionate punishment for misdemeanours and so forth.

Now that I come to think of it, I'd say it should be a mandatory course covering about a month (a solid week of which involves the noisemaker in the next room, just to drive the lesson home) for 15-18 year olds. Give them an idea of what it's like to be a parent. (Also, put someone in the class who is a parent, so the rest of them can see how someone who's already done it can breeze through).

I reckon the birth rate would plummet.

 

Honestly, I don't see much point. How many teens actually want to have kids? Just give them all good sex ed and access to birth control.

 

Universal mandated birth control until they've passed the test and have indicated their willingness to have kids?

"But my right to have children when and where I want!"

"But your children's rights to have a parent who actually knows what they're doing!"

 

You're thinking that the teens in question are thinking with their brains. Or adults for that matter.

Hormones make people stupid, bad choices are made in the heat of the moment even though they know they are bad ideas while not blitzed out on a hormone rush.

Remove even the potential for accidents to happen. Children become intentional only and something you have to work for and earn.

 

On this topic, schooling should contain a hell of a lot more things.
At my school for example, if they'd spent a hundreth as much time on a general education in politics, real-life skills (like parenting) etc as they did with meaningless crap ...

 

Oh, sure, that part makes sense - not saying i agree with you, but I see your point - but the mandatory baby simulator training for teens to 'show them what they're getting into' is redundant.

Sure, some of them will do something stupid anyway. But that's always going to happen. The one who can't help but think with their genitalia are always going to do the natural and stupid thing, and no amount of 'scare them straight' is going to stop that.

 

One of us is missing the point, not sure if you or me, but what I'm saying is that everyone is made by default physically unable, as in outright and utterly impossible, to have children by accident.

The class and certification that you are qualified to raise a child also makes you able to have children in the first place.

It may sound heartless and draconian, but for every shining example of a parent or parents who came out better because of an accidental child, there are dozens or hundreds of children who suffer and die because their parents did not want them in the first place. Personally, I'd take the option that requires that any child born will be wanted and loved because it can't exist otherwise.

And INB4, yes I am aware of the vast amount of problems and outright abuse that would come from this system, the most pertinent being who gets to decide what is "right". That's the problem with humans having any say in how anything is run, we'll always fuck it up via over-inflated egos. Personally I believe that's why the media has such an intense focus on the evil of AI's rising up and taking over, those who really should never had power in the first place will lose it if that ever happened, so they do what they can to socially engineer the world to fear the possibility.

 

I'd certainly be fine with making some sort of contraceptive be the mandatory standard - you can get the counteragent at any drug store for a nominal fee, so it doesn't prevent anybody from having a kid if they want to, but it means you have to actively choose to do so.

 

Too much of a slippery slope to actively restrict it imo. Let's not.
And mandatory contraceptives? The fuck? You want to surgically implant all women who hit puberty / forcefeed them the pill?
That's kinda fucked up.

 

Beats having mistreated or abandoned unwanted babies.

 

There is a clear difference between the status quo (and let's be serious here, not all children are unwanted or neglected) and starting to force-feed people or do forced surgery on them. That is all kinds of fucked up.
If that was on all people, it would be fucked up. But that's not what would really happen, is it? If the problem is parents... whoever's in charge of this scheme will start looking at people and going "oh, those kids there look like they may have kids and do badly by them, let's start !HALPING"

Persecution and Eugenics is the only way that goes.

[EDIT]

We have gone offtopic.
PM if you want to continue?

 

I'm probably about to piss off a lot of people, but I'd actually make an addition to that.

If someone has a genetically transferable health problem, such as a strong family history of diabetes, certain forms of cancer, heart failure, or other such conditions... They would get a more permanent birth control option (ie. vasectomy for men or having their tubes tied [don't know the medical term] for women). Something that wouldn't impact their capacity or enjoyment of sex, but would prevent them from passing those flawed genes onto the next generation.

You'd almost completely remove such conditions from the human genome within 2 or 3 generations. It'd also help with the overpopulation issue.

 

potential parents really need to pass a written exam to be allowed to become parents, not just a practucal

 

All this talk reminds me a bit strongly of the time when "undesirables" - poor, criminal, or "mentally ill" - were forcefully sterilised so they wouldn't breed.

 

Mhmm, while it would be great to make sure parents always know how to be parents, making that happen basically tramples all over peoples rights as a person.

 

Which is one of the few really good reasons why it would be politically impossible to get this passed.

 

If it comes to people's rights to have babies whenever they want vs. the babies rights to be cared for by someone competent, I'm going with the babies every damn time.

 

To clarify what I meant was making a genetic change to the entire population so that every human is born sterile. You have to earn the right privilege to be cured and allowed to have children.

And to underline what seems to have been missed in my first post about it, the exact reasons people are wary about it are the same reasons why no human could ever be allowed to have any part in the process save for having it done on them.

This could only really be feasible at all in an AI controlled world where ego, greed, and corruption are impossible to have any influence because the hypothetical AI I'm thinking of wouldn't make the completely retarded move of giving itself emotions so it can be just like it's obviously superior creators, full sarcasm intended.

In the end, it's a fantasy without getting into Culture level of post-scarcity and AI run everything.

 

In the Vorkosigan series, Beta Colony is a fairly tightly run society on a not yet fully terraformed world. They've codified relationships there, including having publicly available Registered Sex Therapists (usually, but not always, genetic hermaphrodites who can literally swing both ways) who are highly trained, state-licensed, and make damn sure that a young couple's first sexual experiences are amazing. Also, reproductive implants. Betans believe in, once the youngsters get old enough to be active, take 'em to a Therapist (doesn't have to be sex, talking is just fine too) give 'em the implant, and let 'em sort it out for themselves.

Then there's the earrings. Betans wear these earrings which anyone in the know (ie, any Betan over the age of about ten) can decipher their current relationship status. Including "Single but not looking", "in a relationship, but looking for a third", "happily married" and so forth. One of the characters in the book The Warrior's Apprentice mentions "my girlfriend, and her wife" so basically they've got it figured out. Which makes sense. Beta Colony doesn't have room for people who can't let go of archaic cultural hangups. If there's a colony-wide emergency, everyone steps in and does their bit, and if your mind isn't 100% on your job instead of what your significant other may be doing behind your back, then people might die.

 

Sounds like Demolition Man. Not that I'm opposed to it.

 

Honestly, it sounds like a lovely idea, but...

 

Also, the main character of the first two series, Captain Cordelia Naismith, had some trouble with the Betan attitude - as a Betan. She wasn't that suited for the system.

 

wow, what chaos a discworld quote caused

 

Yeah, but any system will have people who don't fit in. What we have now certainly does.

 

She was reasonably fine with it, until she met and fell in love with a Barryaran.

You see, the other aspect of life on Beta Colony is that if you fail to fit in really horribly, you may end up being adjusted to fit ...

 

If I recall correctly, she was inexperienced, and her first boyfriend exploited that, making her step aside in his favor when a command slot opened, then dumped her.