Time for a little sociological thought experiment.

CNN.com - Mother accused of tossing�children into San Francisco�bay - Oct 20, 2005

How do you stop something like this from happening? Was there something in her psyche--or even DNA--that made her predisposed to being such a psychopath!? Shouldn't there be some kind of screening method to prevent this from happening?

A train of thought like this would make the hairs on the backs of the necks of every card-carrying ACLU member stand straight up. Because what I'm talking about here is licensing people to have kids. If you have a predisposition towards KILLING your children, for example, you should get sterilized.

Now those hairs have probably shot into orbit.

Seriously, though. I don't SUPPORT such a drastic measure. But it leads to this one thing. People who know better have at least said "Are you f*cking KIDDING me?" when I mentioned parenting licenses. The general reaction would be that such a thing should not be allowed.

But that doesn't answer my very first question. How do you stop something like this from happening!? You can't just flat-out reject an idea without having a new one. Here's a conversation. It's kind of like a thought experiment. It's more like a artificial dialogue:

"We should pre-screen people for dispositions to harming their children in some way. If they are predisposed to these traits, they should be sterilized."

"You can't do that! It's a violation of basic human rights!"

"So what do YOU suggest to prevent nutjobs from hurling their children into the bay?"

"Uhhhhh...." *long silence* "...uhhhh..."

Exactly.

So how do you prevent something like this from happening without playing God? In fact, when it comes to protesting ANYTHING in general, don't just say, "That's No Good." Suggest an alternative. Otherwise, the "no good" ideas will end up passing for a lack of a better alternative.

Think!