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Should mentally ill people be allowed to have children?

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Depending on the severity of the case, people with mental illnesses are mostly incapable of taking care of others, especially children. In the case of neglectful parenting, the State´ social services intervene and regulates the tenency of the children. Should this public interference apply also to people diagnosed with a certain type of mental illness? How to establish objective parameters in order not to incur in injustices?

Mentally ill people should be allowed to have children

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Relevant details, definitions and assumptions regarding the first possibility.

Pro

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  • Pro Every human being, regardless of their condition, should be able to choose their path in life, including having or not having children.
    • Objection Having children is not people choosing their path in life, it involves giving rise to a new human life. Thus, it is their own path in life plus starting a new life which in turn can give rise to a branch of further humans. Furthermore, it also the path of the partner who may otherwise not have children (possibly adopting children) or have them with somebody else.
    • Objection If a person is unable to take care of children they should not be allowed to have children.
    • Objection Mentally ill people might do all forms of abuse on the children.
      • Objection That may apply only to some mental illnesses.
      • Objection Then it's a question if they are able to take care of their children. Being mentally ill does not negate their right to have the child--it's another whole debate if they are able to care for their children or not.
    • Objection Not everybody is capable of making informed choices.
  • Pro The rights of being a person entails the existence of a person. Since the primordial instinct of humans is to reproduce, every human being has the right to have children.
    • Objection It's absurd to argue humans have rights if it's their primordial instinct. It's a non sequitur and does not make any sense.
    • Objection Many humans do not or not anymore or not in some period like contemporary times feel a primordial instinct to reproduce.
  • Pro For many mental illnesses as well as low severity of additional ones, people are well or sufficiently capable of taking care of their children.

Con

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  • Con Sick people —especially mentally ill ones— have no right to force their illness on someone else by having children.
    • Objection Not all mental illnesses are inherited.
  • Con The natural flows of natural selection are meant to prevent the sick from having children, as they are not as robust as the healthy to reproduce and thrive.
    • Objection Society has changed from the old times. Now, as we have more technologies to adapt to the objectively sick, they have the ability to survive and the right to do anything a healthy person would do.

Notes and references

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