Should Fathers Be Able to Opt Out of Parenthood?Even though the vast majority of sexual behavior does not lead to pregnancy, sexual euphoria is the result of a biological process directed toward reproduction. Therefore, those who engage in sexual acts for pleasure must understand the consequence for sexual intercourse is reproduction, and so, they must be held responsible for their behavior when sex does lead to pregnancy. Furthermore, society thrives only when individuals fulfill their responsibilities for their personal behavior and their social obligations. As such, granting men the right to opt out of fatherhood, outside of adoption, is an extremely detrimental policy to our society and those children affected by such a right.
Bastardizing children creates several social issues as it leaves single mothers to financially and socially support their children without the aim of a father while it also adds parentless orphans to an overburdened social services system. Children need quality parents who provide for their financial, emotional, and social needs, but the reality is that there are a great number of parents who do not adequately provide for their children. Largely, the American culture is undergoing efforts which attempt to train and improve these people's parenting skills; however, allowing fathers to opt out of their parental responsibilities undermines these efforts. Furthermore, there are too many cases where children must be removed from the care of parents as the parents are neglectful and abusive. This means our society has a long ways to go in resolving issues involving the mistreatment of children by parents. Allowing fathers to opt out of their parental responsibilities would help prevent people, who are unprepared for parenthood, from becoming abusive parents, but it also promotes a lack of personal responsibility while it disenfranchises women and disadvantages children with no social system in place to deal with the secondary issues. Therefore, at the very least, fathers must be financially accountable for their sexual behavior. Moreover, legal decisions on issues, such as parental responsibilities, affect how our Nation deals with a broad range of issues. Where society thrives on the contributions of its members, law thrives on consistency that must be equally applied to all Americans. As Congress has refused to adequately deal with the issue of abortion and the Courts only have the authority to confirm there is a right to abortion, the exact rights mothers have to opt of their maternal responsibilities have yet to be resolved. Because the Law requires equal protection, both men and women must be guaranteed the same rights. As such, women can only be guaranteed the right to abortion for reasons, which go outside of a consensual sex contract that places both individuals under the need for equal rights. As not requiring men to fulfill their paternal responsibilities damages our society, it is extremely prudent to disallow men from shirking their responsibilities that resulted from their irresponsible and impulsive behavior. Moreover, the legal treatment of other issues, such as abortion, is affected by this stance, and so, our Nation needs to actively engage these social issues allowing our society to adequately and consistently deal with serious issues. American has for too long neglected key social issues to the detriment of our society and those children who are unfairly hurt by the consequences of their parents' ill-conceived behavior. |
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