Should a rapist have parental rights to a child he fathered during a rape?
Shauna Prewitt's baby was conceived through rape and her rapist sued for parental rights. She is calling for laws to prevent this injustice.
In light of the bizzare comment from Representative Todd Akin on the subject “It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
Should her rapist and baby's father be allowed to exercise parental rights?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/opinion/prewitt-rapist-visitation-rights/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Yes
Side Score: 9
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No
Side Score: 41
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Raping is a very bad act and the rapist wont prove to be a good father. But denying his parental rights is violating the child's right of knowing and being with his father. Let the rapist be forgiven and given another chance to correct his bad behavior. Forgiveness will transform him into a good man. Side: Yes
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The rapist may be forgiven by private citizens, if they so choose, but the state has a responsibility to incarcerate him as punishment for his crime, preferably for at least 19 years so that the issue of parental rights is moot. A child does not have a "right" to know or be with a parent. The state can terminate parental rights for any number of reasons that take precedence over the child's desire to know or see a parent. Also, what is your evidence that forgiveness transforms rapists into good men? Could you cite a study that supports your statement? Side: No
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This violation of the right to interacting and knowing the father does not mean in every case it should be granted. It would be a violation of ethical and legal law to allow this sick and unstable father to come in contact with the child. "Forgiveness will transform him into a good man."" Lol if it was only that easy Sakoman. Wake up people cheat,steal, and commit many crimes yet are forgiven and they continue these habits. Side: No
This violation of the right to interacting and knowing the father does not mean in every case it should be granted. It would be a violation of ethical and legal law to allow this sick and unstable father to come in contact with the child. "Forgiveness will transform him into a good man."" Lol if it was only that easy Sakoman. Wake up people cheat,steal, and commit many crimes yet are forgiven and they continue these habits. Side: No
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You cannot charge someone with the responsibilities of parenthood without also endowing them with the rights of parenthood. Without argument, their visits should be supervised, but there are plenty of parents (for a number of reasons) who can only get supervised visitation. And there certainly needs to be some ground rules regarding the well-being of the child. However, you cannot say "here, we're going to charge you with child support every month, but you have absolutely no rights in regard to the child. Side: Yes
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However, you cannot say "here, we're going to charge you with child support every month, but you have absolutely no rights in regard to the child. I think you'll find you can, if a man chooses to rape a woman, she first of all has to live with that fact for the rest of her life, if he gets her pregnant she has a live at home reminder of the horrible bastard that raped her, took away her sense of personal security and probably damaged her ability to ever have a normal loving relationship or sex life. You think it's fair and just to let a child you love with all your heart spend time with and get to know a convicted rapist just because he is their father, what about the child's future when it finds out the method of its conception. Doing something like granting the rapist father rights only furthers the stigmatisation of mothers from rape, women are afraid enough to report rape, and now liberal knobs like you want to further inhibit their personal freedoms by subjecting them to the torture of staying connected to the cunt that raped them, just because he pays some money. Side: No
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Firstly, I'll speak solely from a personal position. If I were a child that didn't know their father, then it would be natural for me to want to know. Such is the curiosity of the child. The method of conception to me wouldn't matter, the knowledge would be more important. Now from a general perspective, the mother has every right to prohibit this knowledge, in my opinion. The father threw away his parental rights as soon as he raped her, and is not entitled to anything. Side: Yes
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I can accept the fact that people have different views and ideas than I do. It makes the world interesting, but I'm reading a lot "obviously no" etc. etc. Not by just one of you, but a lot of you. And that's not really an argument. Obviously? Frankly, if it were so obvious there wouldn't be an argument. A little bit of argument please. I may disagree with you, but at least I can respect you. Side: Yes
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Saying that rape and incest ought to allow abortion is like saying having cancer ought to allow the smoking of marijuana. It's creating a system of bureaucracy that will limit the freedoms of all of us. The argument should be for personal liberties, not for the most recent scientific data. But anyway, no, of course he shouldn't have visitation rights. In fact, I don't accept that fathers have any rights to their kids without a contract saying they do... but only for the future. Side: No
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Parental rights should only be granted to individuals who willingly conceive a child or consensually engage in activity they know can result in a child. A man should not be legally entitled to rights over a child forcibly created without the consent of the woman via rape. I would liken it to the fact that a man cannot legally keep control of money he stole in the commission of, say, a bank robbery. Regardless of the fact that the money is in his possession, because the money was illegally obtained by the man, as the child conceived of rape is essentially illegally obtained by the man, he has no rights to the ill-gotten goods, whatever they may be. So, no, a man who rapes a woman should have no parental rights over a child conceived of that rape. Side: No
it depends.. if the mother doesn't want to see him, then no... that may be too traumatic for the mother. a child can still know that her future man is not the father though. Same for when a female rapes a man and has a child with him, if the father doesn't want to see the mom, oh well for her. As for custody they should have to pay, if the parent will accept even that, that is. When the child grows up they can be welcome to see the parent. If you want to be in your child's life don't rape to get one... Side: No
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The rapist does not have any right since the child was created through force so it would not be possible to have a harmonious relationship in the family if one parent is damaged physically and emotionally while the other is a criminal under the law. Plus there is also a high possibility of incest rape since the parent has committed it, the child has the genetic physical traits of the parent raped, and meeting the child is inevitable if one is a parent. But the rapist has responsibilities nonetheless. Probably weekly allowances and home supplies would do for his contribution to the child. Side: No
A child always belongs to the mother first, as the mother is the one who must suffer through childbirth, and risk her life: many women die in childbirth. Adding rape to this list, the rapist clearly has no rights concerning the child, and the child would be confused to why her mother hates her father, and trying to understand what happened. Side: No
Absolutely not. Why should he expect to have rights as a sperm donor when he stripped the mother of her right to consent? Furthermore, simply because she chose to keep the child does not grant him any leniency or parental rights whatsoever. He traumatized her mentally, and anyone capable of such abuse should not be near children. Side: No
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