Children of Men, Ender's Game, and A Wrinkle In Time, to name a few sci-fi classics, all place the symbolic future in the hands of either children or a specific child. If children are our "future," then who gets to have and raise children in the future will probably be pretty important.

Why then are we so cavalier about who we let have and raise them? As technology enables more people to reproduce, environmental pressures make each new life a bigger burden, and our understanding of child psychology improves, it'll become more and more evident that just because a person can have kids doesn't mean they should have kids. My guess is that, decades down the road, future generations will require a license to reproduce and start a family. That sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

The thing is, we already have sort of a "family license" system. It's called adoption. If you are adopting, or trying to use an assisted reproductive technique (ART), then you have to meet some requirements. Adoptive parents must meet not just minimal standards like "no history of violence" but also quite high standards of stability, concern for the child's welfare, wealth, and other characteristics reviewed through applications and interviews. Those who would use ARTs are often given more than an eyebrow raise by their physicians if they're over a certain age or have a given lifestyle choice. Regardless of what criteria must be met, the point is they are always stricter than the criteria a couple must meet to be able to reproduce in the, uh, standard fashion, because there are no criteria (besides the reproductive biology) for being able to have kids unassisted.

So, what gives? If you can have children naturally, you're free to have as many as you want and basically do what you want with them. The only exceptions are parents so horrible that the state steps in and takes them away. If you can't or don't want to have children naturally, then not only do you have to go through the difficult and complex processes of adoption and/or ARTs, you have to be approved to do so. It's double-damage on the equality front. Our society, it would seem, unconsciously believes "If you're naturally able to have kids, then it's OK for you to have kids. But if you aren't able to naturally have kids, there might be something else wrong with you, and you should be investigated." That kind of mindset is wrong - your ability to have kids is not an indicator your ability to take care of them.

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