The Cellar - View Single Post - Should the governement ever sterilize someone?

Clodfobble · 05-11-2004, 07:09 PM

While I understand the "slippery slope" argument, I think it's a strong enough line in the sand to say that criminals can get sterilized (length of time to be determined) and not worry about the government being able to easily extend those restrictions to ordinary citizens later on. After all, no one's worried about the government suddenly deciding arbitrarily who can and can not be incarcerated, right? Sterilization becomes just another form of punishment, like a probation of sorts.

I would prefer that the "criminals" in question only be felons and not, say, your average pot smoker, but then again, pot smokers are already doing something illegal, so theoretically they will continue to not get caught. I'm not worried that the punishments could someday be disproportionate to the crime (like permanently sterilizing pot smokers would be) because I think public outrage would hold it back, just like it would today if some senator said "Hey, I think we need to make a life sentence mandatory for marijuana offenses."

The retarded, though, definitely not. Any children they have will be put in foster care anyway, they're not going to be given the chance the average person has to abuse them first.

05-11-2004, 07:09 PM	#3
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	While I understand the "slippery slope" argument, I think it's a strong enough line in the sand to say that criminals can get sterilized (length of time to be determined) and not worry about the government being able to easily extend those restrictions to ordinary citizens later on. After all, no one's worried about the government suddenly deciding arbitrarily who can and can not be incarcerated, right? Sterilization becomes just another form of punishment, like a probation of sorts. I would prefer that the "criminals" in question only be felons and not, say, your average pot smoker, but then again, pot smokers are already doing something illegal, so theoretically they will continue to not get caught. I'm not worried that the punishments could someday be disproportionate to the crime (like permanently sterilizing pot smokers would be) because I think public outrage would hold it back, just like it would today if some senator said "Hey, I think we need to make a life sentence mandatory for marijuana offenses." The retarded, though, definitely not. Any children they have will be put in foster care anyway, they're not going to be given the chance the average person has to abuse them first.