Sterilization, the law, and the sanctity of life

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_MeDotOrg
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Sterilization, the law, and the sanctity of life

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A woman who is a drug addict and already has seven children underwent sterilization prior to sentencing for her latest counterfeit check sentencing.
Washington Post wrote:In her 34 years, Summer Thyme Creel has passed a lot of bad checks, taken a lot of drugs and borne a lot of children (seven). After her sentencing today in federal court in Oklahoma, her involvement with checks and drugs will stop at least temporarily, but she will never have another baby. That’s because the judge in her case suggested, in writing, that Creel consider getting herself sterilized before the sentencing, and Creel proceeded to do just that.

The judge, Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot of Oklahoma City, had taken a guilty plea from Creel for making and cashing a counterfeit check in January 2017, but had to postpone subsequent sentencing hearings because Creel was either in jail or testing positive for drug use, court records show. When Creel didn’t show up for her sentencing last June, the judge looked at her pre-sentence report and observed that Creel was a user of both crack cocaine and methamphetamine.

“It appears highly likely,” Friot wrote, “that some of Ms. Creel’s children were conceived, carried and born while Ms. Creel was a habitual user of these illicit substances.” He noted that she had relinquished custody of six of her seven children in 2012, with the seventh born in 2016. And so the judge concluded that, at the sentencing, “Ms. Creel may, if (and only if) she chooses to do so, present medical evidence to the court establishing that she has been rendered incapable of procreation.”

Creel took the hint. In November, she underwent a voluntary sterilization procedure, court records show. Federal prosecutors argued that the judge should not consider that fact in determining a sentence for Creel, because she “not only has a fundamental constitutional right to procreate,” but also because her decisions to do so are “irrelevant to determining a sentence.” Creel faces a 12-month term for her counterfeit check scheme.


Knowing full-well the implications of politics and sterilization, and being very sensitive to the idea of sterilization and minorities, think of sterilization in this context:

Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. wrote:I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.


Sterilization is a really loaded word in politics. It makes you think of Nazis and genetic engineering.

For thousands of years, procreation meant survival of the species. Personally I think that's one reason why there was such a great taboo against homosexuality. We have been given a strong biological imperative to procreate.

But not for everyone. Our biological urge to procreate is not a driver's license for raising children in the 21st Century, especially since our planet is not getting any larger.

So I'm not talking about sterilization as a mandatory government stipulated event, but I do invite people to think about the stigma of self-sterilization, that you must never preclude the possibility of procreation, no matter how many complications it may add, not only to your life, but the rest of the world.
"The great problem of any civilization is how to rejuvenate itself without rebarbarization."
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"We've kept more promises than we've even made"
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"Of what meaning is the world without mind? The question cannot exist."
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