For those who don't know, legal paternal surrender is a process by which the father of a child, during the period of pregnancy, relinquishes all visitation rights and control over a child, but also loses the responsibility to care for or provide for the child.

I support it for a few reasons.

Firstly, equality. Abortion is legal (as I believe it should be) and can be performed with just the consent of the pregnant woman (again, not something I would want to change. As long as the fetus isn't viable, it's your right to do what you want with your own pregnancy). It is therefore the case that sex, for a woman, does not equal consent to child-raising. The same ought to be true for a man.

Secondly, child support is a case of the state forcing somebody into a contract, in this case to seize their money and give it to somebody else. I can't ever support something like that.

Thirdly, this gives both the man and woman the freedom to start families of their own entirely guilt-free and you don't have the sorts of uncomfortable marriages of necessity that we see now.

This should be performable without the consent of the mother, but only before the time at which the pregnancy can reasonbly be terminated (with no damage done to the mother and a non-viable fetus). It is thus the responsiblity of the mother to inform the father in good time for the decision to be made.

What do you think of the idea?

I would probably support it. I oppose abortion (personally), but if the mother doesn't need to ask the father if she can have an abortion, why is the father forced to financially support something he doesn't want?

What if the mother lied about being on birth control and then refused to get an abortion? It seems only fair the father gets to say "No, you're a liar, and I'm not paying for it for eighteen years."

I mean obviously it's complicated and it's probably one of the most difficult things to discuss because to me it seems like it would be heavily polarizing. Nevertheless, if abortion (unfortunately) is legal, and women are undoubtedly favored by the court system and can basically do whatever they want, why not allow men to opt out under certain circumstances? It's probably something I would vote for. Even if I don't necessarily like it.

I'm not entirely sure i'm comfortable with that, although i suppose in a world where the government provides adequate support to single mothers, then it wouldn't be a concern.

Yuppers, for just the reasons you laid out.

"Firstly, equality. Abortion is legal (as I believe it should be) and can be performed with just the consent of the pregnant woman (again, not something I would want to change. As long as the fetus isn't viable, it's your right to do what you want with your own pregnancy). It is therefore the case that sex, for a woman, does not equal consent to child-raising. The same ought to be true for a man."

I'm against abortion with the exception of life threatening danger to the mother and cases of rape and incest. I also despise the fact that a mother can abort a child without the father's consent. So I disagree that a man should be able to dump his responsibility to his child on grounds of equality.

"Secondly, child support is a case of the state forcing somebody into a contract, in this case to seize their money and give it to somebody else. I can't ever support something like that."

I can't ever support the idea that a father should be able to abandon his child. Child support ensures that dead beat dads have to help raise the kid they are 1/2 responsible for making.

"Thirdly, this gives both the man and woman the freedom to start families of their own entirely guilt-free and you don't have the sorts of uncomfortable marriages of necessity that we see now."

"Guilt-free" you say? How can dumping one's kid leave anyone guilt free? It's one of the worst things a person can do. Children should get only love from their parents. Anyone who fails to provide that love should be ashamed.

kowenicki said: I support abortion and no. Not even comparable in my view. I'd explain why, but I'm watching football at the moment.

Presumably the football is over.

So would you like to explain why?

There are some problems with it... (Rape, Fear of men intentionally not using birth control/lying about using it).

Though it does go a long way towards providing "abortion equality."

It's probably something i'd vote for, but with some trepidation.

I am against abortion (unless the mother's life is in danger) and I'm also against this. So the fact that women can get an abortion without asking their partner is a non-issue because I'm against it anyway.

As for this, I'm against it because every person should own up and face responsibility. This is especially the case for children, who deserve to have the support of their parents. So if you are willing to do the deed, then you should be prepared to face the repercussions of it.

Keeping the legal stuff aside, from a moral point of view, what kind of messed up human being would you have to be to leave your own unborn baby behind and not ever see their face. How would a child feel knowing that their father abandoned them before they were even born. Part of being a parent is making sacrifices for your own child and this kind of thing would only give leeway for people to become irresponsible even more.

I stopped reading when you said (Abortion is legal (as I believe it should be) shame on you.

If that happened all (majority) underage pregnant women will throw away those innocent children.

Parents who hated their child because they ruined their life (due to forcing them into "shotgun" marriage, etc) are less likely to be good parents, in my mind. Better for children to be wanted.