Poll: Abortion for minors.

[Edwardo Piet]

Being informed is different to the parent having aurhority over the matter. Being informed I think should depend, so the question is then how it is judged. But informed or not, I do not think that anyone should have the right to force an underage mother to through a pregnacy against her will. I think that is preposterous. In my view - No one should have such an authority over another.

EvF

[Meatball]

I'm legitimately torn on this idea. I see it being broken down into two debates.

Should a minor require permission to get an abortion?
Minors don't have all the rights of an adult for a reason. They aren't known for their decision-making skills. I can see (from a completely neutral standpoint on abortion), why a parent might want to be involved in the decision to have a medical procedure done on their child. What if this was for cosmetic surgery? Would you still support a child's "right" to take a bus downtown and get a boob job? What about prescriptions? Should your 13 year old daughter be able to walk into a doctors office and get a presciption for Ritalin or Zoloft? It's her right, isn't it?

Should parents be notified if a minor has an abortion?
Of course. These parents are bound by law to take care of their children. It's absurd that the state would be able to withhold medical records about a person's own child, and then turn around and say they are legally responsible for the medical health of that child. A legal parent should have complete access to any medical records until that child hits 18, including abortions.

A little background on my position on abortion: I'm pro choice. If a woman is pregnant and wants to abort, she should be able to do it so long as she can find a doctor to do the procedure. That should be her right. Coincidentally, that is what the current law (or lack thereof) is in Canada right now. If you have a 9.5 month pregnancy you want to terminate, for any reason, find a doctor and get it done. The state shouldn't be able to govern your body.

I'm making the above arguments from the standpoint of the parent's rights. Like I said earlier, I'm torn on this issue, and I'm open to debate. This post is mostly me playing devil's advocate to flesh out the argument.

[Edwardo Piet]

The second point I think it depend son how decent the parent is, if they're a terrible parent so as the child wouldn't tell them because of that, I don't know if they should always, absolutely have to know. There are good parents and bad parents.

As for the first point, as I've already stated on this topic up above, I think that when it comes to an underage mother, no one should have such an authority - I think that it is very different to the matter of getting a 'boob job'. It's certainly an exception for me - I don't think anyone should be able to have the power to force someone underage to go through with a pregancy. I don't think the 'boob job' or any of the other examples for that matter, are remotely comparable here. In my view.

EvF

[Meatball]

So how would the government decide who is and isn't "decent"? That's dangerous territory.

Should a minor's parent be able to force that minor to have an abortion?

Just to clarify EvF, you're stating that an abortion should be a special case that the minor must make the final choice themselves?

[leo-rcc]

Meatball,

Your first argument is a typical slippery slope, if we allow a what is to stop b or c or d from happening. All those other examples are not specifically related, they should be evaluated on their own.

The second argument I am in complete agreement with.

[Edwardo Piet]

I'm still thinking about the second argument. But the first argument, as I hope I've made very clear by now - I totally disagree with.

I think that it's an exception, yes. As I've said - a minor shouldn't be policed by anyone on such a delicate matter, in my view. They shouldn't be forced either way, advice is fine, counseling is fine - but being forced on such a matter, is totally preposterous in my view.

EvF

[Meatball]

Your first argument is a typical slippery slope, if we allow a what is to stop b or c or d from happening. All those other examples are not specifically related, they should be evaluated on their own.

That's not what I was going for, but I see how you could interpret my post that way.

What I mean to clarify is whether or not a minor should be able to make other medical decisions without permission from a parent. I just used extreme examples. I mean to point out that it's curious that one should take a position that a minor should make a medical decision for him/herself, but only this one.

I understand that abortion is a special case, but it's also a rather extreme case. Thus, one might conclude that if a minor can be trusted to make a choice on abortion, they should just as easily be trusted with lesser medical decisions.

[Edwardo Piet]

Oh I see... in your first point, you were actually arguing to the opposite for what me (and also Leo it seems?) thought you meant?

Well my answer to that would be, less medical decisions certaintly are just that, lesser. And as I say and you say you understand, abortion is a special case.

So should there be other exceptions like abortion? Well I think the normal rule is that a parent should have their say in their child's health! It's their child. The reason why abortion should be an exception though, in my mind, is that as I said - I think it's completely preposterous for anyone, including parents, to have the authority over an underage mother, on what to do with the baby, and particularly to have the power to be able to force her to have it!

I just can't think of any examples analogous to that. There may be. But it's currently the only exception.

EvF

[binny]

Wow this is a tricky subject. In my experience as a teenage, a young woman, a pregnant woman, a mother and now a middle age woman I can say I personally don't think an underage mother should be forced to tell her parents she's pregnant or get permission for an abortion. Thankfully I never had to face that decision as a teenage, but when I was 24 I became pregnant by my low life boyfriend. I had an abortion because deep down I didn't want to be stuck with this guy for the rest of my life. Trust me it was the right decision. I'm 46 years old now and to this day my mother still doesn't know about it. If I wasn't going to tell her as an adult, I surely would have been terrified to have to tell her as an underage teen.

[Violet]

Your first argument is a typical slippery slope, if we allow a what is to stop b or c or d from happening. All those other examples are not specifically related, they should be evaluated on their own.

That's not what I was going for, but I see how you could interpret my post that way.

What I mean to clarify is whether or not a minor should be able to make other medical decisions without permission from a parent. I just used extreme examples. I mean to point out that it's curious that one should take a position that a minor should make a medical decision for him/herself, but only this one.

I understand that abortion is a special case, but it's also a rather extreme case. Thus, one might conclude that if a minor can be trusted to make a choice on abortion, they should just as easily be trusted with lesser medical decisions.

I think peoples' rights should not be based on a magical number (One-size-fits-all-18), but on the maturity, mental stability, and self-sufficiency, of a person.

You would agree that a mentally insane person is not usually self-sufficient, and often immature? Does that person have the capacity to live alone, and make their own decisions? They do not. Neither do many children, and even a few normal adults (More than i would like to believe). These people should not be allowed to have the authority to buy a weapon, and neither should they have the authority to make a choice that will affect their entire life. That is where the crux of this argument is, is it not? That many people are not mature enough to make the choice by themself?

A person who cannot make wise decisions... does not have the maturity to care for a child. Therefore abortion should really be mandatory for people so immature. Those people will not make good parents. By halting the generation of bad parents (of any age), you destroy a primary root of this problem, and our world is only populated by children with reasonable parents. My stance is that maturity, mental stability, and self-sufficicy, should be what we guide our laws under.