Sperm Fertilizing an Egg
What makes someone a father? Is it simply fertilizing an egg or is there more to it?
In what can only be described as an outrageous perversion of justice, the Massachusetts judicial system is considering the petition of a convicted rapist for visitation and other parental rights for the daughter produced by his rape of a 14-year-old acquaintance. If this is not re-victimization with court sanction, we don’t know what is.
Understandably, the now-19-year-old mother wishes to have her identity protected. But the facts are these: The convicted rapist – and biological father of the child in question – petitioned the judge in his criminal trial to allow him visitation and other parental rights such as a say in education and health care. Rather than dismissing the request outright, the judge transferred the case to family court, where it now stands. The mother’s attorney is attempting to have it removed and sent back to criminal court.
We don’t think we have to argue too strenuously that the father’s claim is beneath contempt, similar to the old joke about killing both your parents and then begging for mercy because you are an orphan. At least we wouldn’t think we had to argue, except for the fact that Massachusetts family court is now considering the petition.
Here’s the bottom line: Regardless of traditional legal notions of parental rights, no right of any kind should emerge from the commission of a crime. To paraphrase the ancient rabbi and scholar Hillel, “Everything else is commentary.”
Allowing the rapist to claim an identity as the father of the child is also a denial of the victim’s right to chose a father for her child. This woman has to live with the responsibility of raising this child, and has never picked a father. she is a single mother, there is no father. therefore there can be no parental rights of the father. there can be wages garnished from the perpetrator, but to allow the perpetrator to also be recognized as the father of this child is to allow him to essentially steal this child from its free place in society. if we were to allow, which we sometimes do, fatherhood to be gained in that way it would amount to a near genocidal condemnation of women, who would then be able to be forced to raise families with predators who simply picked them to attack. Likewise, this is also an assault on the validity and value of family, fatherhood, and the rights of the child to not have to be trapped in a dysfunctional family.
think of a father. then think of a rapist. do they both deserve the same amount of respect?
Child Abuse is against the law regardless of who commits it. Any parent who places their child in harms way can be charged with chlid abuse and endagerment and so can any other person. This mother (or any person in a similar situation) should inform any person that intends to deliberatly place her child in harms way, that she will file charges of Child Abuse and willful endangerment, whether it be an individual working in an agency of the social services if they are involved, (you cannot file against the agency itself), someone in law enforcement or even a judge. She should contact the Dept. of Social Services, and keep pushing till she finds someone willing to help her, and request a “Good Cause Clause.” This isn’t something this agency tells people about, or even wants people to know about, but there are 7 grounds that a person can claim that prevents the offending parent from obtaining visitation of a minor child. Rape being one of these grounds. She will need proof such as police reports, court records and / or medical records. She can obtain an attorney through legal aid provided by the state if she cannot afford a lawyer. Im assuming that since the Dept. of Social Services is a Federal Program it works the same in all States.
The cemetaries are filled with children who were murdered by the very people who were supposed to love them, but didn’t. Just because a person can father or birth a child doesn’t make them a parent. However, most agencies have the mistaken idea that 2 parents are better than one, but that’s only true if love is involved.
A couple of years ago I read comments after the local Chief of Police made a media statement following a sharp rise in rape on his watch that his remedy was to tell young women not to drink or go clubbing. I commented on the article, as did many other people, but was appalled to discover only myself and the writer of the article lined up on our side and an appalling number of men lined up on the other, stating that it was their belief that rape was just a girl who changed her mind or regretted having sex.
So I’m not surprised that someone would let this get that far, particularly in the present climate of several states having passed anti-abortion legislation which makes no provisions for victims of rape. In my lifetime, I have not seen the pendulum swing this far in the direction of enabling rapists nor the atmosphere reek more of male entitlement. To say that as a woman, I am hurt and deeply disturbed by these sorts of attitudes and the support of them by our various government entities is an understatement, because no words can truly describe how furious these things make me and most women. How disappointing that after having fought to get so far, we are now being pushed backwards.
Well said as usual, Cornerstone. Thanks.
I don’t agree that enabling rapist and the atmosphere of male entitlement hasn’t been as it is now, because It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. I think mostly it wasn’t discussed openly, as much in the past as it is now. Rape in some cases, such as date rape, can be is a difficult crime to prove, and so many a victim bore the injustice of these type of predators with the support and the asistance of the only people who could have helped her if she could have proven the claim.