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146 Comments
- shrudheuie, on 06/19/2009, -4/+67Holy *****, you mean the fact that teenager have been giving birth since forever may have something to do with it being kind of natural? You mean the fact that girls hit puberty in their early teens means there may be some natural reason for them getting pregnant in their teen years? They did studies to prove this?
- Smokeydabear, on 06/19/2009, -0/+45Maybe not pulling out is genetic too.
- charm803, on 06/18/2009, -5/+39My mom had me at 24. I'm 29 now, and I still don't want kids....especially if they turn out like me. I gave my mother grief.
- Raptor007, on 06/19/2009, -0/+34Well, sex is hereditary. If your parents never had it, you won't either.
- RealmDown, on 06/19/2009, -1/+35We all gave our moms grief. They loved us anyway, which is what makes mom's so great.
- Philodox, on 06/19/2009, -0/+22Except that's the exact opposite of the trend of industrialized nations. Once a country goes through its "industrial revolution" birth rates drop dramatically as the cost of living increases.
When you are on a farm, children provide a source of cheap labour. When you're living in a metropolitan area and paying $1000/mo for a 700 sq ft apartment kids are more of a liability than a benefit. Not to mention school, clothes, and all the other fun that comes from raising a family is expensive. - arcooke, on 06/19/2009, -1/+21It's fairly obvious that teen pregnancy is a natural thing. Girls hit puberty between age 9 and 14, boys between 10 and 17. It means their bodies are ready to reproduce. Our bodies wouldn't let us reproduce if we weren't ready. Since life is all about reproduction, this a completely normal thing. The teen pregnancy "problem" is entirely cultural. Ever wonder why female children like playing with baby dolls so much? It's in their nature to care for their young. If they had a real baby they would do the same. The only problem now is expense and finding time in a busy life to take care of it.. which is probably why society frowns on it.
- Imissnaptime, on 06/19/2009, -1/+18there is no such thing as "teenage pregnancy", its just pregnancy. newsflash, humans are animals too! and what happens when an animal reaches sexual maturity? it mates! who knew?!
- Diefree, on 06/19/2009, -1/+16Abstinence only education has never and will never work. The best way is to teach teens about birth control, condoms and the pill along with the morning after pill and plan b. That is the only way you'll see a decrease in teen pregnancy.
- TVarmy, on 06/19/2009, -0/+13Last I checked, sperm have genes in them.
- fungusmonkey, on 06/19/2009, -1/+13Yes, people who are born with a genetic lack of intelligence and common sense often give birth to people with a genetic lack of intelligence and common sense.
- h0ser, on 06/19/2009, -4/+16yea, the whole question in the title is stupid. Heck, teens were having kids thousands of years ago because they didn't live very long to begin with. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a teen. Young one too.
(assuming you believe in that.) - djfacemachine, on 06/19/2009, -0/+10People don't have sex just to form babby. It IS recreational because it feels good and it is fun. Teaching abstinence is stupid. Horny teenagers are going to try to get into each others pants regardless of what the risks are. The whole point of sex education is accepting the fact that people are going to have sex and with that in mind, giving them the facts about birth control so they can make informed decisions.
- Hetman, on 06/19/2009, -1/+11Abstinence education has been proven to increase teen pregnancies. If you look at states in European countries they have far fewer abortions and teen pregnancies. They also do not teach just abstiniance education. They teach the proper way to use birth control. When used properly birth control is nearly 100% affective. Lies like the ones you are passing on is why we have such a problem in the states.
- Junkyarddawg, on 06/19/2009, -0/+10That is exactly what is giving them their evolutionary advantage.
- v0ider, on 06/19/2009, -0/+10Wasn't teenage pregnancy normal 200 years ago? Teenage pregnancy recently became a social stigma so it is culturally stagnated.
- strangewill, on 06/19/2009, -0/+9@evilesttoast:
I'm gonna go hug your mom. - Philodox, on 06/19/2009, -1/+9Except that abstinence only sex ed doesn't work. I agree that both parents and teachers need to stress that sex isn't something you should rush into or do carelessly. But telling teenagers not to have sex at all is like trying to convince a lion to become vegetarian.
- kolop1, on 06/19/2009, -0/+8So you mean once hormones kick in people like to have sex? I thought people only wanted sex after they were 28 out of college and settled into life. I guess you can't out smart mother nature.
- Snoogs, on 06/19/2009, -0/+8Our society and tech have 'evolved' faster than our human bodies... While girls are physically ready to make babies, they are not mentally or emotionally equipped *in this day and age* to handle such things properly... like financially supporting yourself.
- ApokalypseNow, on 06/19/2009, -0/+8Evolution is an observable, repeatable fact. Your continued refusal to accept objective reality has no bearing on it.
- Mnementh2230, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7CrazedLeper - please explain Cit+ E. Coli bacteria and Nylon Eating bacteria, then.
If Evolution is impossible, what mechanisms caused these bacteria to change? - avataros, on 06/19/2009, -2/+9It's a scary thought, isn't it? The ones who are generally less able to provide for their children than their fully adult brethren - financially, emotionally, and overall as a parental partnership, if that - are the ones having kids earlier, and they're encouraged by natural selection to push that trend along the way.
In my current age, I'm "following" the same path as my parents, though I don't consciously feel any societal or cultural pressure to delay having kids.
It was a very interesting take by the good Professor. - anodos, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7No, even sooner than that. My great grandmother had her first child at the age of 14 (she was married at the age of 13), and that was considered perfectly normal by everyone at that time. Her husband was 8 years older than her. Oh, and this all happened right here in the US of A.
- Harabeck, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7Truth through repetition? But Crazed, I can't count how many times you've said that without giving any logical support. Are you sure you aren't talking about yourself?
- gogog0, on 06/19/2009, -1/+7never heard of puberty or hormones?
- mrdeadhead, on 06/19/2009, -3/+9how could it be genetic?
"oh it's my 13th birthday, according to my genes i better hop on a rod"
but i will say, my sister is a nurse in a maternity ward and she says no one has kids better than teenagers, they're up and at 'em hours later. older women are like floored for days. - RealmDown, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6Well, you always catch it from your parents....
- evilesttoast, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6Diggers everywhere go and hug their moms.
- inactive, on 06/19/2009, -1/+7Well if your kid doesnt have kids then your screwed.
- Snoogs, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6We've given starving tribes/neighborhoods all the food they would need to be satisfied, so what did they do? They kept reproducing at their astounding rate until they couldn't feed themselves again and were in starvation and poverty. It is their nature to overpopulate beyond their own means. Giving them food only makes more of their people suffer.
- FyreGoddess, on 06/19/2009, -0/+6I feel like I'm missing something here. I'm not seeing the correlation between starting early and having a lot of kids. I think that the conclusion being drawn is odd, to say the least. While women may be able to have more children by starting early, they are also giving birth to healthier and longer-lived children (unless they are also impoverished). Lately there have been more and more studies about longevity being tied to the age of your mother (parents) when you were born, because the younger the parents, the healthier the sperm and ova.
This piece doesn't actually get into any statistics or reasoning that younger mothers have more children, and from every study that I've read, the larger families tend to be tied more to income, religion, education level or political affiliation than the age of the mother when her first child was born. I did some brief research and found that the teen mothers who were educated about contraception, who stayed in school and who had a strong support network were UNlikely to continue having children, especially as teenagers. More and more girls are starting to ovulate at younger ages, but just because they CAN make babies at 8 or 9 or 10, doesn't mean they are. This "starting early = having more babies" seems the same kind of logic. They can, so they will. I just don't buy it.
If the poverty and (emotional/mental) support issues can be addressed, then the likely outcome of people having children at a younger age is more likely to be a healthier and/or longer-lived society than a larger society. - Hetman, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5It is a good thing we have techonology that could prevent this. Now we just need to educate them properly on there use.
- Junkyarddawg, on 06/19/2009, -5/+10This is common-sensical. One can't "turn off" evolution, it always runs, and in the west an estimated 95% of the selection is sexual: whether you chose to have children, how many children you chose to have, and at what age you have your first child.
Historically there was a balance between producing lots of kids and increased mortality of the kids - if you had too many too early they were more likely to die. Today support from society has completely removed this cost, it is now an evolutionary win/win to start early and produce as many children as possible without taking time, care, or money into considieration.
So having lots of kids, and starting very young, will become more and more common in society. - e1ioan, on 06/19/2009, -1/+6JoeMondo, your descendants - and only descendants - will inherit some of your gene configuration. When I said "your line will end" I meant *YOUR* line, not your kin's line.
- CreateTheFuture, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5No, the problem is that we facilitate and reward poor decisions. Nobody's responsible for their own actions. Welfare, tort law, special privileges for the rich, etc...
- Y0tsuya, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5If that happens now your grandpa would be told by Chris Hansen to have a seat over there then carted off to jail and people everywhere would say how he's a deviant child molester.
- Zippo, on 06/19/2009, -1/+6So long as we have Captain Falcon around, teen pregnancy shouldn't be a problem.
- KJSatz, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5I didn't think he was into girls of reproductive age.
- Moralogic, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5Our culture is more than just reproduction, but life is still all about reproduction pretty much. We get jobs to be successful to be able to attract a better mate. We do everything for mating reasons, if you realize it or not. We don't quit showering for months, work a crappy job just to get by, and take any woman we can get. We go after the best we can get woman wise, and have to have everything in line to do so.
- foucaultsvac, on 06/19/2009, -0/+5Blocked @ work.
If teenagers are biologically capable of having children, shouldn't that include the mental realm as well? Childhood has been culturally extended into modern adolescence. - DrunkenPirate34, on 06/19/2009, -1/+6Unless you have a brother/sister.
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………………………………………………………’’~-‘’_ , , ,,’,_/--‘ - jerryjamesstone, on 06/19/2009, -1/+6I dunno...is it contagious?
- Averness, on 06/19/2009, -1/+5Then you fail at life. re: Darwin
- Nubli, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4Families that have a history of early age pregnancy usually correlate with their financial wealth. The lower that is, the more consistent the problem seems to be.
- Daxx22, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4Pedobear doesn't play when there is grass on the field.
- JoeMondo, on 06/19/2009, -1/+5Not exactly.
You're not the only person with your genes, just the person with your configuration.
Your genes will go on, just as the genes of non-reproductive bees and other similar animals do, through kin. - tech42er, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4"I don't consciously feel any societal or cultural pressure to delay having kids"
Really? If you're really among upper-middle class peers with a college education, you shouldbe feeling tons of societal and cultural pressure to delay having kids. You don't realize it, but the fact that the focus isn't on having children is that societal/cultural pressure to wait. - vertinox, on 06/19/2009, -0/+4IT'S 300 MILLION YEARS OF EVOLUTIONARY PROGRAMMING!
Had your monkey ancestors learned how to do it, we wouldn't be around. -
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