Futurist/transhumanist writer Hank Pellissier has lectured at the H+ Summit in Harvard, been dubbed “San Francisco's performance art bad boy,” and written books and columns for the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Salon.com. In his latest piece for the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies, where he is an associate scholar, he suggests would-be parents get licensed to reproduce.
To back up that plea, Pellissier compiled a list of “deplorable situations caused by flawed individuals who should not be
allowed to impregnate, gestate, reproduce, and parent because they're
mentally, physically, emotionally, or genetically unsuitable for the
ambitious task.” Labeled are teen moms, alcoholics, child beaters . . . and a certain La Habra single mother of 14.
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Can you guess who? (Your first two guesses don't count.)
Enough Is Enough
Nadya Suleman–the “Octo-Mom” welfare recipient and single mother who
added to her original brood of six children by simultaneously producing
eight more–is obviously the poster icon in this category. Even the most
libertarian, keep-the-government-out-of-my-family demagogues were irate
with Suleman's decision to bump up to 14 kids, because she's incapable
of handling even a fraction of that amount. Parents who demonstrate
inadequacy with the present total of children in their nest should be
prevented from causing additional chaos. Isn't it sensible to require
citizenry to limit their progeny to manageable sums? What's the maximum?
Two? Three? Four? Variable, in my opinion. Depending on parents'
ability to provide love and basic needs.
If Pellissier thinks Suleman required a license before dropping kids like they came out of a spigot, he surely must be in favor of un-licensing Michael Kamrava, the doctor who pumped dozens of embryos into Octomom. (We're still awaiting a ruling from the state medical board, which could do just that.)
Kamrava has abandoned his Beverly Hills offices without paying off his lease and is now being sued by his landlord, TMZ reports.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Kamrava “vacated and
abandoned” his office on March 15, 2011 … without paying off the
remaining 6 years left on his lease.The landlord claims
Kamrava agreed to pay at least $6,231 per month until December 2017,
subject to certain increases — and therefore feels the doc is on the
hook for more than $894,192.65.
When it comes to landlords, like patient, like doctor, apparently.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.