From: gazit@duke.cs.duke.edu (Hillel Gazit)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion,soc.men,soc.women
Subject: Re: You want to win.
Date: 12 Apr 92 05:45:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: lear.703057527
Reply-To: gazit@cs.duke.edu (Hillel)
Followup-To: soc.men
Organization: Nefolet shel nemushot (Fallout of Wimps)

In article <92102.115551JLB155@psuvm.psu.edu> JLB155@psuvm.psu.edu (Jennifer Brown) writes:
>"In order to maintain a minimum of unwanted births and unwanted legalities
>of child support and custody arrangements, all persons who have the
>possibility of becoming a parent need the express written and verbal
>permission of the other potential parent before having a child.
>If such permission has not been granted, a pregnancy of this unresolved
>matter will be terminated, before and up to the 180th day of the
>pregnancy.  Arrangements can be made for the child, once born, to
>be adopted, given that both parties sign these Adoption Arrangement
>papers.  Once again, if neither papers have been signed, the pregnancy
>will be terminated up to and including the 180th day of the pregnancy.
>If the mother is ambitious enough to still want to raise the baby by
>herself, such papers must be signed by the mother with a copy given
>to the father, stating that she alone is the parent of the child,
>no legal actions will be required of the father, no child support
>will be sued unto him, all parental rights to this child will be
>discontinued.  If a father wants a child, the same papers will have
>to be signed by him and a copy given to the mother, stating that he
>will be the sole parent, no legal actions will be required of the
>mother, no child support will be sued unto her, and all parental
>rights to this child will be discontinued.  Furthermore, with the
>father being the sole parent, the child will be a "test-tube" baby.
....................................................................
>Comments?

1) I like the general idea, but it is too complicated and with
   too much paper work.

2) I don't like the idea of postponing a decision about abortion till
   the 24'th week.  An abortion in week 4 by a vacuum method is much
   less dangerous and damaging; RU-486 (I would like women to have
   this option too) is also not effective after 45 days.

3) For the father to have his "test-tube" baby, the mother should have
   a complicated procedure.  I don't want to force it on her by law.

My suggestion is:

If pregnancy occurs, and the mother does not want an abortion, then
she will give two choices for the father:

a) Sign a commitment to support the future child.
b) Sign off all his rights and responsibilities toward the future child.

He will have one week to answer.  No answer would mean option b).

If she can't locate the father then she will submit a request
to a state agency that will send him a registered mail with the form.
If he will not answer in a week then an ad with his name will be 
placed in a daily newspaper.  No answer will mean option b).

The mother will benefit by raising the issue early and therefore there
is a better chance that she will invest the $10 in early pregnancy test,
and I think that it is a good idea to know *early* about pregnancy.
The father will have to decide in a week, without too many games;
his name will be the one that will be published.  Therefore both sides
will have enough data to make the decisions which are best for them
early in the pregnancy.

There will be very little paper work, nobody will be forced to follow
someone else's "morals" and the state will not stick its nose, unless 
one of the sides tries to play dirty.

>-Jennifer

Hillel                                              gazit@cs.duke.edu

"There must be a way to raise up Woman without tearing down Man." -- wharf rat