20071031   

Eleven Year Olds, Dude.

Michael considered fate at 12:35   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Another response on eleven year olds taking birth control from Joe:

this issue .. is not a liberal/conservative issue. Is a fourteen year old of age to enter into a legal contract? Sixteen? Seventeen? You can't sign up for the military if you are not eighteen, unless a parent consents for seventeen. I used the age of 11 because that is the parameter established by the school in Maine.

I'd argue that stating anything other than "11 to 14" is misleading, and that was the meaning of my remarks. I could go further with that, but I think the argument is self-explanatory.

Today we over medicate are children like we are giving them candy. I could list for pages the sometimes fatal side effects of giving adult medications to children.

I whole-heartedly agree with this sentiment. Unfortunately, it is only a sentiment; my opinion. It is clear that, as a society, we have made the choice of medication over non-medication. We seem to carry a collective perception that pills will fix us.

That being said, I'll make a few points:

• To try and suggest that over-medication is a problem with children only is laughable.
• We medicate our children on a daily basis with ADHD drugs, anti-depression drugs, and poor diet. Ignoring these issues as any less significant than birth control for the same group of kids is wrong. Trying to address this particular problem as opposed to the whole big stinkin' elephant in the room is akin to patching one small hole in a sinking ship full of many small holes.
• The national out-cry resulting from this birth control issue in Maine is clearly a matter of moral outrage. No doubt, some smart people somewhere are discussing the problem and debating the pros and cons. To think that you will find these "intelligent" debates in the media coverage is, again, laughable. This is thinly-veiled moral-snobbery and has a whole lot more to do with the "icky fact" that children of a young age might have sex on occasion than it does with the fact that birth control may not be safe for young children.

Joe finishes off with:

These children are not old enough to assume the risk mor [sic] the responsibility.

Just to take a clear stand here and stop riding the fence like I sometimes do, I agree with this sentiment as well. An eleven year old is probably not at a point where they can safely evaluate the risks involved. That being said, the same exact statement can be said for large numbers of our adult population. When you live in a society where someone has sued McDonald's for having hot coffee, you live in a society that insists on shifting blame and responsibility, as opposed to addressing it. You live among individuals who are truly unable to consider community issues in a clear and logical light, with everyone's best interest in mind. You live in a society of me-firsts.