Now as to humans: in the case where females kill their children in order to be with a new lover, we are reminded of Susan Smith (1), the South Carolina mother, who in 1994 drove her car into a lake with her children seat-belted in the back seat because she viewed them as an obstacle in her relationship with her boyfriend.

In the Mexican Legend of La Llorona (2), we are told that a woman killed her children to reignite the former love and passion she had had with her husband.

As for males killing the unrelated offspring of their female partners, New Yorkers will recall the horrific beating death of Nixzmary Brown (3) by her step-father three years ago.

Having Children Should Not be a Right

I think it is about time we all admit that having children is not a Universal Right.

4,000 years ago the Babylonians decided that citizens did not have a right to build homes and other buildings whatever way they wanted and so developed building construction codes. Rome didn't institute building codes until after they had some tragic fires back in Nero's time. Chicago didn't enact a building and fire prevention code until after the great fire of 1871.

Throughout recorded history we find that building codes adopted right after a series of tragedies. Very few today dispute the notion that the government has a right to interfere in how you build your home if your home's construction can affect your neighbor.

Today, in America, we have a crisis in child abuse. Back in 1993, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect declared a child protection emergency. There are 3,000,000 cases of child abuse reported each year. Treating the abuser does not work and, as we have seen in the news lately, child protection agencies are overwhelmed.

We know the problems: Alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, lack of education, violence as an accepted form of behavior, psychological disorders, and lack of access to birth control.

Efforts at intervention have been feeble. Sure it helps somewhat that agencies try to discourage corporal punishment, find ways to make health care more affordable and accessible, and offer substance abuse advice. It's also nice that social services are even trying to improve coordination among the police, schools, families and children's protective services. But that's all it is - nice. Whatever nice may mean.

What is really needed is to prevent child abuse before it occurs. Before anyone can have a child in this country, they should need to obtain a license. Before they could get this license they would need to take classes where they would be taught the value of human life [yes, this needs to be taught], how to improve your economic condition [families in the upper 3 quintiles would be exempt], how to manage your basic needs [ditto on exemption], child behavior and what is proper for discipline [beating of children is prohibited], basic child safety, and the stages of child development.

Religious Whackoes Should Not Have Children

An investigation revealing overly religious fervor, psychological problems, alcohol and drug abuse, spouse abuse or documented cases of violent behavior should preclude the granting of a license until the conditions are cleared. As to why I include overly religious whackos: if your religion believes it is necessary to whip children into obedience then you should not be allowed to have children; if your religion believes that God is the only medicine for your child (4) then you should not be allowed to have children.

You may ask, "Won’t this prevent most of the homeless and drug-addicts and wife-beaters and drunks and holy-rollers from having children?" Yes, precisely. This will not prevent all cases of child abuse, but certainly it will decrease it substantially.

Poverty in itself is one of the greatest risk factors for child abuse (5) and violent religious beliefs is another (6).

A few years ago my 6 year-old granddaughter was playing dolls with her 7 year-old cousin. I saw the cousin spanking the doll. I asked her what she was doing. "Baby was bad and so she needs to be punished." I told her not to spank the doll, that beating any child was immoral, horrible, and cruel. She said, "No, it's good - my mommy spanks me."

I told her that her mother was wrong. That no matter what any child does, it is absolutely wrong and nasty and bad to spank a child and that if she spanked the doll again she would have to go home. I told her that in my house we do not spank children and we certainly do not treat dolls other than we would treat live babies. If you pretend that dolls are real - you must treat them with love and affection as you would real babies.

She stopped spanking the doll but she insisted that spanking children was OK. Obviously, one day she will abuse her own children.

Sadly, it is better that innocent Nixzmary Brown died. Living in that particular home would have been perpetual abuse. Had she lived, this little girl would never have known the joys of being in a loving home. She would never have felt affection from the two animals raising her. All the simple things of childhood would have been denied her. Instead, torture, humiliation, violence and hatred would have been her daily bread; and no child should have to endure this. Had she lived, the consequences of living under those conditions would have resulted in her abusing her children when the time came. And so it would go on. It's better that she died.

We pretend to be a civilized nation, yet we allow the worst among us to perpetuate their species.

Each day in the United States, more than 4 children die as a result of child abuse in the home. It is time we licensed parenthood.

ENDNOTES

(1):

crime.about.com, Susan Smith - Profile of a Child Killer

On October 17, 1994, just days before David and Susan's divorce papers were filed, Tom Findlay sent a "Dear John" letter to Susan. His reasons for wanting to end their relationship included the differences in their backgrounds. He was also emphatic about not wanting children or wanting to raise her children.

(2):

Phantoms & Monsters, The Legend of La Llorona: The Wailing Woman

As the years went by, Maria and her wealthy husband grew apart. He was often gone for months at a time on the ranch or shipping goods along the Camino Real. He had little interest in Maria or the children. Maria suspected he was frequenting the company of other women during his travels.

One day, Maria was walking along the street with her three children when her husband's buggy approached. Sitting close was another woman — a beautiful young woman. He passed her and the children, pretending not to notice them. Maria's heart was torn in two. Her anger exploded into a jealous rage.

If only she didn't have the children, she thought, then her husband would love her again.

In her rage, she dragged her three children to the Rio Grande and held their heads under the water until they were dead. Maria had committed the ultimate sin — deliberately killing her own children.

Returning home later that night, she explained to her husband what she had done to please him. He was horrified and ordered her out of his life. It is said Maria roamed the streets of Mesilla for many nights, calling and crying for her children, which earned her the name "La Llorona" — the wailing woman.

(3):

The New York Sun, 13 Jan 2006, Girl's Murder Sets Off Child Welfare Debate

Nixzmary Brown
Photo Credit: NY Post

"As the parents of a murdered 7-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant girl were formally charged with the girl's death yesterday, child advocates wondered how the city's child welfare system failed the girl, who allegedly was abused, and the city's Administration for Children's Services pledged to begin an agency wide investigation.

Nixzmary Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, 27, was arraigned on charges of second-degree manslaughter and child endangerment. Her common-law husband, Cesar Rodriguez, 28, who was convicted of harassment in 2003, was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder, sexual abuse, and child endangerment."

(4):

ReligionNewsBlog, 13 Aug 2008, Woman charged in son’s death appears in court

Standing in court with her hands shackled behind her back, Ria Ramkissoon, 21, wore a purple jumpsuit, rocked nervously side to side, and shook her head slightly when Judge Theodore B. Oshrine read the charges against her.

She and four other members of a small group, 1 Mind Ministries, that police have called a religious cult, are accused of abusing and neglecting Ramkissoon’s 21-month-old boy, Javon Thompson. In arguing for the judge to give Ramkissoon bail, her attorney, Steven D. Silverman, said in court today that the woman was being controlled by adults during the period when her son died.

...

The child was denied food and water and became thin with dark circles under his eyes, according to a statement of charges filed by Detective Vernon Parker. When he stopped breathing, cult members were instructed to pray around Javon's body, according to Parker.

"The Queen told everyone that 'God was going to raise Javon from the dead,'" according to the document. "That resurrection never took place."

(5):

The American Family Physician, Primary Prevention of Child Abuse

Primary prevention must be implemented on many levels before it can be successful. Strategies on the societal level include increasing the "value" of children, increasing the economic self-sufficiency of families, discouraging corporal punishment and other forms of violence, making health care more accessible and affordable, expanding and improving coordination of social services, improving the identification and treatment of psychologic problems, and alcohol and drug abuse, providing more affordable child care and preventing the birth of unwanted children. Strategies on the familial level include helping parents meet their basic needs, identifying problems of substance abuse and spouse abuse, and educating parents about child behavior, discipline, safety and development.

(6):

JAMES W. PRESCOTT, Ph.D. From HUSTLER, Oct 1977, CHILD ABUSE IN AMERICA: SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

But the fact is our society tolerates and supports physical violence against children while punishing the same type of physical violence if an adult is the victim. The idea that beating children is good for them is a long-standing theory not only in our society, but in many others. The attitude that physical pain and punishment are necessary to produce discipline and to build strong moral character dates back to biblical times and finds its religious roots in the Old Testament: "Withhold not correction from a child.... Thou shalt beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell" (Proverbs 23:13-14).