Legal Pregnacy Age?

[Kenny_C.002]

Originally Posted by Arbok conquerer

I suppose that case is true, but that is still the exception to the rule. I think it should be stopped because it will make more teenagers think it's ok to have babies with someone as long as they have love for them. That will eventually be an uprising of homeless teenager couples who can't take care of their babies and can't find a place to live on their own. Finally they will start thinking it is good to have sex at a young age and start doing it way to much which will eventually lead to STD's and such. It can also be argued that this will increase the likelihood of teenagers geting pregant just because it is illegal and they want to rebel. But rape, murder, robbery, and extortion are illegal but people do that because they have psychological problems, NOT because they are pressured to rebel the law.

Logical fallacy anyone? There is no logic in that having a lack of a legal pregnancy age would make kids feel that it's "okay" to have babies. Often we know that teen pregnancy is a result of an accident, or other circumstances such as date rape.

Another logical fallacy is made with that of the "uprising of homeless teenagers": it is simply impossible to prove, as there isn't a legal pregnancy age. It is, of course, also impossible to impose a pregnancy age to show whether or not this statement (however likely it is to be false) to be true.

A third fallacy is commited as you somehow link "it's ok to have babies" with "it's good to have sex at a young age": there is no link to begin with, because the first statement is false. You also cannot prove this third statement to be true even if the first statement is true.

Then you lead yourself down another fallacy with "way too much": having sex at a younger age, if you assume that to be true, does not equate to having sex "way too much" and "leads to STD's". First, "way too much" isn't something quantifiable. Second, "way too much" does not take into account of the number of partners. For all you know, it could be 1 partner for the entire time, leading to a 0% of STD's should both partners start with none. And even if you assume everybody is permiscuous, practicing safe sex automatically decreases the risk of STD's. Even if you assume nobody does practice safe sex, most of the STD's are curable, which is why we classify STD's as STI's nowadays.

The rebel idea doesn't work, I agree. Unfortunately, they may still be lead through by temptation. Date rape, for example, is much more common amongst teenagers than with adults. This isn't a "psychological problem", as you've "elegantly" placed it.

Finally, even if we do put a legal age on pregnancy, what would the punishment be? Jail is impossible, fines would put the girl into more financial trouble than she already has, etc. All common forms of punishment cannot be applied to this situation.

That only thing the government can do is spend on a good sexual education program for the kids, and hopefully teach them about safe sex should they choose to have it. This is basically the only "good" way of solving the problem. And the problem itself is solved only via minimizing teen pregnancy, not eliminating it. It is, of course, impossible to eliminate it altogether.

[Professor Geoffrey]

I'm glad some people know what STIs are. =D

There shouldn't be a legal pregnancy age. It's impossible. If anything, it will increase the amount teen sexual activity. A lot of teens think its cool to break the law, and a lot more think it's cool to "score".

It's impossible to eliminate teen sex, as Kenny said, but all we can do is give proper sexual education to the youth of America. And this includes kids that are eight and up. Kids under seven shouldn't know yet; it could cause sexual thoughts too early, because, you have to admit, a lot of seven-year-olds are naive.

.::GD::.