Opinion / Columnist
Fathering children from prison
03 Jun 2011 at 21:29hrs | Views
Should men be allowed to father children while in prison, asks single dad Marlon Abrahams.
Often I think we, as a society, are too clever for our own good!
According to the Human Rights Act in the UK, a convicted (and imprisoned) criminal was granted permission to father a child with his partner via artificial insemination. And it cost the National Health Service £2,000!
I'm all for people having human rights, but to my mind, once you commit a crime you give up your human rights for the duration of your sentence or rehabilitation.
It's as if first world countries have too much time on their hands and sit around thinking up all these weird and wonderful executions of the law. While the rest of us are trying to drag our sorry countries out of the third world into the first. Though, if this is what awaits us in the first world, I wonder if I'd want to go there.
Another crazy law
According to the article a convicted burglar also used the same law to secure an early release from prison to provide for his five children. Apparently the court ruled that sending him to prison for 8 months would be in some kind of violation of his children's rights to having a father provide for them.
No-one wants children to have dependable fathers who provide for them more than I do, but this? This is insane. What kind of message does it send to other criminals? I have five kids and I need to feed them, so I'll go out and steal something and provide for them from my ill-begotten gains, and I know that I won't go to prison?
And as for being allowed to make babies from prison... Come on! On the face of it, it would appear harmless. You're basically making a sperm deposit via a medical device I would imagine. But it's the principle that I object to. I think that the consequences of breaking the law should be a forfeiture of some of one's basic human rights. You chose to transgress the very rights of society as a whole in first place, right?
Knowing the devious minds of our intrepid and downright nasty prisoners here in South Africa, can you imagine the loopholes and schemes they would come up with should we have a law like that here? I would imagine that quite a few would have no qualms about parading their children shamelessly before a parole hearing as exhibits for their pleas for realease.
This is what this decision is tantamount to. Unless of course the baddies are reformed and stick to the straight and narrow.
Yeah, you can stop laughing now.
Read more by Marlon Abrahams
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Marlon? Share with us in the comments below.
Often I think we, as a society, are too clever for our own good!
According to the Human Rights Act in the UK, a convicted (and imprisoned) criminal was granted permission to father a child with his partner via artificial insemination. And it cost the National Health Service £2,000!
I'm all for people having human rights, but to my mind, once you commit a crime you give up your human rights for the duration of your sentence or rehabilitation.
It's as if first world countries have too much time on their hands and sit around thinking up all these weird and wonderful executions of the law. While the rest of us are trying to drag our sorry countries out of the third world into the first. Though, if this is what awaits us in the first world, I wonder if I'd want to go there.
Another crazy law
According to the article a convicted burglar also used the same law to secure an early release from prison to provide for his five children. Apparently the court ruled that sending him to prison for 8 months would be in some kind of violation of his children's rights to having a father provide for them.
And as for being allowed to make babies from prison... Come on! On the face of it, it would appear harmless. You're basically making a sperm deposit via a medical device I would imagine. But it's the principle that I object to. I think that the consequences of breaking the law should be a forfeiture of some of one's basic human rights. You chose to transgress the very rights of society as a whole in first place, right?
Knowing the devious minds of our intrepid and downright nasty prisoners here in South Africa, can you imagine the loopholes and schemes they would come up with should we have a law like that here? I would imagine that quite a few would have no qualms about parading their children shamelessly before a parole hearing as exhibits for their pleas for realease.
This is what this decision is tantamount to. Unless of course the baddies are reformed and stick to the straight and narrow.
Yeah, you can stop laughing now.
Read more by Marlon Abrahams
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Marlon? Share with us in the comments below.
Source - Parent24
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