Does The End Justify The Means?
Most of you know I am not a big fan of lawsuits especially frivilous ones, but there comes a time when legal action must be taken. I am a big believer in adoption. I have friends who were raised in happy homes by adoptive parents, other friends who are adoptive parents themselves, and I have even stood by a friend giving up her child for adoption. It is my hope one day my husband and I will become adoptive parents as well. It sickens me to learn of the Florida Law requiring pregnant women to publish their names and the names of their sexual encounters for the past year in the newspaper (thankfully, Judge Peter Blanc ruled requiring rape victims to comply with the law unconstitutional).
I realize the fathers of these babies have a right to know they exist and informing them of the mother’s choice to give the baby up for adoption is important, but you must weigh these benefits against the fundamental right to privacy of the mother and her partner(s). I would agree with a law requiring the birth mother to inform the suspected father via official letter or through the adoption agency, but public humiliation for all parties involved is unacceptable. This law requires all women who can not identify the father of their child to publish a list of their recent sexual partners. Are they insane? What if you made a really bad decision and had a one night stand with someone who said his name was Fred Smith? What if you didn’t happen to catch his name? Are you supposed to publish an account of your events on the day of conception and see if anyone reading the paper remembers you? Apparently in the State of Florida you are. How sick is that?
Believe me, I can see the importance of knowing who the father is (when possible) for family medical history, and to protect the adoptive family from a lawsuit if the father becomes aware of the child and wants to exercise his parental rights. I do sympathize with adoptive parents who have to endure lawsuits from women who change their minds or men who just found out they are fathers. But, in today’s world adoption is an extremely complicated, scary, and yes, sometimes risky undertaking. Thankfully, the benefits are enormous, and most are successful, remaining out of litigation. I only wish more mothers would consider the gift of adoption instead of abortion; however, this new law will only make that choice harder. Choosing life and ultimately adoption is a serious undertaking and a very hard decision to make, we should reward these brave women for the courage they show, not brand them with the modern day “Scarlet A”. Maybe they didn’t make the right decisions by getting pregnant, but they are trying to do the best thing for themselves and their babies. We must fight to protect the rights and privacy of all our law abiding citizens. This is a democracy and our government speaks for us, when we turn our heads, look away, and don’t get involved, our elected officials forget who they represent. It is up to us to say, this law is unjust, we do not accept it, and we will not stand for it.
May 3rd, 2003 at 6:21 am
one end cant justify the means… we need lots of ends. like world
domination AS WELL AS a world of people who are high on opium. because
seriously, what were you thinking when you just wrote randomly that
everyone should smoke up. that wasnt very nice. because i disagree and i feel
that EVERYONE SHOULD DISAGREE! and you know why? because america did
NOT win the war in vietnam. although some people do say so. like this
crazed site that i visited… where they kept going on and on and on and
on and on and on and kept going on and on and on about how america was
SO cool. it annoyed me (and i had to repeat the above words, just in
order to give you the same sensation i felt… you see i learned a long
time ago that in good writing it is not the truth that counts but rather
the emotion provoked by the writing)
in conclusion, the americans did not win the war, and i am a superb
writer.
see ya
anna
and please… if you reply, e-mail me?