I believe that America’s morality is on the decline. America has always been seen as a moral country but now the society in America has changed drastically. After William Bennett viewed polls showing that: “We Americans now place less value on what we owe others as a matter of moral obligation; less value on sacrifice as moral good, on social conformity, respectability, physical pleasure and sexuality-and correlatively greater value on things like self-expression, individualism, self-realization, and personal choice.” In the past some things that seemed unacceptable in society are now considered as acceptable. Many controversial things that are seen or spoken on TV nowadays would have never been broadcasted in the 1940s and 1950s. Some of these changes include the increases in the illegitimate birth and divorce rates.
Illegitimacy was once seen as embarrassing in America, but now it seems like the norm. The rate of illegitimate births in America went from 5 percent in 1960 to 32 percent in 1992. Because of this, there are so many children who do not know their biological fath...
Second parent adoption is an important tool utilized by same-sex couples in an effort to protect their parental rights in states where same sex marriage is not recognized. Although gay and lesbian paren...
The addition of a child into a family’s home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents. Instead of waiting to see if the child had the mother’s eyes, the father’s hair or Grandma’s heart problem, the parents and doctors can select the best eggs and the best sperm to create the perfect child. Many see the rise of in vitro fertilization as the second coming of the Eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th century. A process that is able to bring joy to so many parents is also seen as deciding who is able to reproduce and what child is worthy of birthing.
Individuality, which is one of the strongest values in the United States today, is taken away at the moment of conception in the B...
Women who gave birth to illegitimate children were required to legitimize their children through marriage (Lavrin 12). This form of legitimization was subject to the husband’s approval and request for honor. Illegitimacy was a pervasive aspect in the colonial cities especially in 17th and 18th cen...
Whittaker Hughes, Susan. “The only Americans legally prohibited from knowing who their birth parents are: a rejection of privacy rights as a bar to adult adoptees' access to original birth and adoption records.” Cleveland State Law Review. 55.3 (Summer 2007): p429-461. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.
In the United States about 1.6 million pregnancies end in abortion. Women with incomes under eleven thousand are over three times more likely to abort than those with incomes above twenty-five thousand. Unmarried women are four to five times more likely to abort than married and the abortion rate has doubled for 18 and 19 year olds. Recently the U.S. rate dropped 6 percent overall but the rate of abortion among girls younger than 15 jumped 18 percent. The rate among minority teens cli...
One of the most pressing problems facing America today is our moral crisis. This problem is one that is related to many other social dilemmas. It has a correlation to our rising crime rate, drug usage, and a trend towards sexual irresponsibility. It is imminent for Americans to find a cure for this moral disease lest we are bound for chaos. In order to solve this problem we must first, as with any problem, determine the causes. One of the causes is the overall tolerance of things that are immoral. Immorality can be defined as anything that deteriorates the decency, honorable or artistic merit, and overall purity of things. Today our society is one that accepts this trait. Tolerance of music and television that is morally questionable and an overall acceptance of a growing trend of sexual irresponsibility. That cause is the one that is possibly the most challenging one to remedy. The antidote includes a change of the current American attitude towards immorality. Another cause is the decline of the American family. The way to rid ourselves of this causing factor is to promote a more traditional family and encourage sexual responsibility. A third source of the destruction of America’s moral base is the media, It is becoming a crude exhibit of America’s worst ethics. The remedy for this component of the problem is to more strictly regulate and censor the media.
At first glance, assisted procreation practices do not necessarily violate a child’s right to identity. The violation lies in the fact that the state is not taking a serious enough stance on regulating the issues that emerge from assisted procreation technologies. The state is voluntarily removing its responsibilities in regulating this field by allowing cases of donor confusion, the implantation of too many embryos and the disorganization of donor files. Instead of imposing criminal sanctions or punishments, the state is too often turning a blind eye.
... to fairly enforce such a program. This objection was backed by multiple scenarios which demonstrated that most punishments are implausible. In response to this objection, I discussed Lafollette’s idea of removing children and putting them up for adoption. This plan involved orphanages or third party adoption indefinitely or until their biological parents became licensed. I also formulated an enforcement plan consisting of heavy fines and jail time for unauthorized children. Although this plan is harsh, it is fair and enforceable, thereby refuting the objection that there is no way to enforce parent certification. This paper discussed objections and responses to Lafollette’s argument which concluded in the reaffirmation that parent licensing is a possibility.
is more general a reflection of values espoused within society than a decline in morals.
Adoption is a very important part of the American lifestyle. The welfare of children needs to be put in front of homophobia. There are an estimated 500,000 children in foster care nation wide, and 100,000 of these children are awaiting adoption. In 2013, only one child of every six available for adoption was actually adopted. (Sanchez, 13) Statistics like these show the true importance of adoption. People seem to prefer to have their own children biologically, but adoption should be taken into consideration, even if natural conception is possible.
Infanticide is a way to alter the reproductive stream before the child has the status of a real person, which is culturally defined (source). The deaths of weak, illegitimate, excess, deformed and unwanted infants are not defined as murder when the infants have not yet been born into the social world. Infanticide occurs cross-culturally for a multitude of causes. The reasons for infanticide can be summed up into three categories: biological (including the health of the child and twin stigmas), economical (relation to other children, women's workload, and available resources) and cultural (preferred gender, illegitimate children). This essay will examine cross-culturally the biological, economic and cultural factors for infanticide.
International adoption stunts the growth of domestic adoption in the United States. While many kids are available for adoption in the U.S, more kids are being adopted internationally. The reason for this may be because “many people choose to adopt internationally because there is a less chance that the biological parents will try to find their children later in life; whereas if adopted in America, there is a greater chance that the biological parents will search for the child” (Databasewise.n.d.pp 1-2). Not only do the adoptive parents want to be sure that the biological parents do not find their biological child, but they also want to avoid confrontations that can eventually have volatile results. Since there is a great need for domestic adoption in the United States, many American citizens believe that people should be banned from adopting children overseas (carp.1998.pp 135). For example, recent studies have shown that the USA is faced with a very serious problem. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, between “1999-2006,an average of 129,884 children are in public foster care every year waiting to be adopted” (adoption alternativ...
Without tradition of ethics, people would not be taught what to value. In the U.S., certain aspects of life are seen as more important, thus being passed through the family for all to cherish and learn from; however, some Americans are not happy with where this country stands in terms of what the people choose to render “valuable”. With 7 in 10 people saying that America’s morals have gotten worse over the years, 5 of those people will also bet that values will continue to take a downward spiral (Cohn). The broadness of this poll could very well be portraying any value, big or small. By “America’s values”, it could mean anything from as little as the style changes, to as big as respect for the government. One of the more effective representations of this negative turn is the influence religion has on the average American family. Atheism in this country has increased from 1% to 11% in the last 45 years. In this same amount of time, two-thirds of this country says the economy has gotten to be “uncontrollable, and on the wrong track,” (Cohn). These studies have exposed the values of the average U.S. citizen who is raising the next generation of beliefs. It is only them who c...
Ludden, Jennifer. “Can Child Marriages be Stopped?”. npr.com. 25 Nov 2013. Web. 10 Feb 2014