Should poor people have kids?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Is your child well cared for?  Got everything it needs?  Safe?  Warm?  Fed?  Loved?  Then deafness doesn't make people unfit parents.

I think the issue here is people who are financially and/or emotionally not suited to having children but continue to do so.

Boru

There was a time, in the not so distant past, when there were efforts being made in the US to prevent deaf people from having children.  There was even a plan to prevent them from marrying and the idea of forced sterilization was even floated.

Of course, deaf people can raise children just fine.  I took a course on Deaf Culture and was shocked to learn the above things.  I had no idea this was a thing.  

As for being poor - that's sort of subjective.  How poor is too poor?  There is the possibility that fortunes will change.  If you can provide the basics and are a loving parent then I am not sure that financial status is the only basis to go on.

I agree that if you can barely keep food on the table or provide other necessities it's probably best to stop breeding.

Right enough - 'poor' is a very subjective term.  Let's say 'Too poor to provide a child with the basic necessities'.  No one's claiming that if you can't afford to send your child to Cambridge and have to settle for Hull, you shouldn't have kids.  But if you are so financially stressed that things like diapers and inoculations are a problem, then maybe it's best to not rear a child in those circumstances.

And yes, circumstances can change.  But more often, they don't - people born into poverty generally (not always) spend their lives in poverty.  It seems a dangerous risk to be desperately poor and have children on the off chance that things will get better.

Boru