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- Newsgroups: alt.abortion.inequity
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!nigel.msen.com!heifetz!rotag!kevin
- From: kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy)
- Subject: Re: What's really behind this "men's choice" thing?
- Message-ID: <1992Dec22.174726.27172@rotag.mi.org>
- Organization: Who, me???
- References: <1h0h9fINN2i6@gap.caltech.edu> <1992Dec21.021136.21855@rotag.mi.org> <1h425tINNnhm@gap.caltech.edu>
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:47:26 GMT
- Lines: 41
-
- In article <1h425tINNnhm@gap.caltech.edu> peri@cco.caltech.edu (Michal Leah Peri) writes:
- >
- >If a man has sex and no child is born, then he has no obligation
- >to support a child (since no child exists). His obligation to support
- >is contingent on the existance of a child.
-
- Circular, Michal. Very circular. Since we stipulated at the outset that we
- were discussing "child support" then it is GIVEN that a child has been born,
- and not given up for adoption. Your statement is no more a "justification" of
- child support than
-
- Black people should earn less because they are non-white
-
- is a "justification" of employment discrimination. A stipulation is not a
- justification.
-
- Care to try the question again?
-
- GIVEN that a child has been born, and taken into the mother's custody,
- what, besides his participation in the sex act, justifies the
- imposition of paternity child support on the man?
-
- >kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy) writes:
- >>Why do you think the man's constitutional right to not have his property
- >>deprived without due process of law should have any LESS weight than this
- >>alleged, non-enumerated "right" of a child to be supported by both of its
- >>natural parents?
- >
- >A child support hearing *is* due process of law.
-
- A child support hearing meets only the minimal requirements of procedural
- due process. The imposition of paternity child support FAILS, IMO, to meet
- the requirements of substantive due process, however, in that it deprives
- the man of his property with no rational reason for the deprivation. The
- deprivation cannot be defended on ordinary tort negligence grounds, nor can
- it be defended on social policy grounds, either, IMO, since the current
- system forces subsidies from men for, and therefore encourages, the
- production of illegitimate children, a phenomenon which I believe can be
- shown statistically to be detrimental to the public welfare.
-
- - Kevin
-