What gives people the right to reproduce?

Is it in the constitution or something? I was reading an article about how you should have a license to become a parent, and everybody was saying how it would be violating civil rights.

I know that just because you can do something, doesn't automatically mean you have a right to do it all the time and at will. So regarding reproducing, are people just assuming everyone has the right, or is it actually in the constitution or something.

Just wondering for my psych class!

to The Golden Buffalo, the right to reproduce is not the same as the right to eat. You eat if you can afford it. Just as it should be with children. You can have them if you can afford them. There should be many more restrictions on our welfare system. It should not be a matter of civil rights. Yes, you have the RIGHT to reproduce over and over again but if you can't pay for it too bad. (This is not meant to belittle anyone who needs welfare and is just in a rut. This is for people like my sister who refuse to get a job and just keep having children because she will never have to pay for them)

You are looking for the Right of Privacy. Basically the 9th amendment says that Congress cannot pass laws that take away freedoms from the people. The Supreme Court has used this amendment to allow for a broader reading of the Constitution and protected people rights that are not specifically mentioned. Naturally this usually causes controversy.

What is protected under this broad interpretation of the law that isn't specifically mentioned?

1. Your right to educate children in their own home
2. Your right to have an abortion
3. Your right to have sex with contraceptives as a married couple
4. Your right to own and view pornography
5. Your right to "pull the plug" when you are terminally ill
6. Your right to be gay
7. Your right to have children
8. Your right to get married

Basically whatever the Supreme Courts decide is a general freedom that shouldn't be able to be taken away falls under the Right to Privacy.

i think it's scary that people would even think the govt should control our lives in this way. This is like basic humanity, like telling people, you're not allowed to eat, you're not allowed to drink, no moving for you. Human beings are creatures, animals of an incredible nature. For some other or group to come along and say sorry but you're not good enough WTF! You don't decide who lives and who dies! May the natural order carry out but this is not the governments business.

The fed is under no obligation to kepp paying but that is much different than steralization of those who don't meet adolf's criteria. They've already gone too far.

This goes to the basic question of who decides, the racist above who wants to eliminate those black welfare crack babies? The mentally ill, the dirty, the poor? As if poverty were some damned sin of being in some situation where everybody is getting crap wages, one or two examples of AMAZING people who rose out do not negate the thousands who don't. This goes deeper than anything you're concerned of but the judgement and execution of the people in the world is a crime and it is an attrocity perpetrated everyday.

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 1965
The Court found a "continuum" of privacy rights that can be inferred, though not actually implied, by the Bill of Rights (including the right of free association, among others).
In this particular case, the Supreme Court ruled that a married couple had a right to marital privacy, and could not be prosecuted for use of contraceptives.

Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 US 438, 1972
The Court extended the reasoning of Griswold to include non-married couples, finding that there was no essential nexus between restricting contraceptives to only married couples and preventing premarital sex and pregnancies. They view marriage as a relationship between two individuals and see insufficient reason to infringe on such a relationship that hasn't been formalized to justify such a law.

These principals have been applied and extended over and over again in cases such as:
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 1973
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 2003 (permitting homosexuals to use the same standard as Eisenstadt to be let alone in their own bedroom, throwing out anti-sodomy laws nationwide)

And many others.

I think anything is legal until there is a specific law against it.

And the constitution keeps laws from being passed blocking you from doing what is your right.

So, if a state tried to pass a law saying you have to have a certain IQ to breed, it would be taken to court and found to be unconstitutional. On what grounds, I'm not sure.

Depends where you live; in communist China you can only have one child, so if you enjoy your civil liberties here in America I guess we as humans are suppose to be smart enough not to over procreate, more then we can handle mentally and financially.

As far as who gave us the right, I believe the correct answer is GOD!

well let me ask you this, for your psych class. does everyone have the right to breathe. it is an inherant right. now in communist nations it is not a right.

Nothing. as a matter of fact, if we restricted "those" people on welfare and other gov give aways and "those" that can't stay out of prison, we would cut the population of a "certain" group that causes most of our problems.

There is no positive "right" to reproduce. It's a (largely involuntary) biological mechanism. This is like asking what gives people the right to pee.

Look at the 9th Amendment.

Also the courts have repeatedly stated that the government can not limit reproduction.

Perpetuation of the species. Law of the land. The government supporting all the bastard babies that are born out of wedlock. take your pick.

It's in the declaration of independence as "pursuit of happiness"

That is the reason for the 2 sexes.... That would be your rigyt as a human being , to reproduce ... same as any other animal.

Biology.

I am gonna go out on a limb and say "God" on this one.

Judobigdog