1. Not very if you have heath insurance or an adopter lined up to pay your bills. Way too costly if you're alone and one of the working poor for whom insurance is a pipe dream and you have to pick and choose which bills to pay late based on how close each one is to the collections office. Maybe food stamps, WIC, welfare can help out here. 2. See 1. 3. If you want to hand the baby over to THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, or any number of private agencies, I think you can get a pretty decent amount of money to pay for care, assuming you are young, healthy, don't have any genetic disorders and are white. Also assuming that the baby turns out healthy, free of birth defects and white. Even if you did this, it's assuming that you can keep your job during pregnancy, (which, for me anyway, would not be an option-some of the chemicals I handle are mutagenic and teratogenic, so I'd be just as compassionate to have an abortion, rather than a stillbirth some months later...) or find a comparable job before you get visibly pregnant and people stop considering you once they lay eyes on you.
Re: Purely talking about "cost" in terms of money,
(I understand that Massachusetts is currently revolutionizing healthcare for the people who "chose" not to buy it before the mandate, but, we're just one state.)
Re: Purely talking about "cost" in terms of money,
Unless your unwanted child goes straight to a loving couple in the place of its birth, there are additional monetary costs. And we haven't begun to touch the human costs.
The human costs are trouble, because it's *so* dependant on situation.
I'm pretty sure you can find agencies who will basically "buy" your pregnancy, that is, the agency charges $50,000 or so to the adoptive couple, who foot the bill for pre-natal care, birth services and what-not. Of course, then you're just a baby-gestating machine, and heaven forbid you develop some kind of fondness for the spawn in your gut, you're left either facing a crushing separation or financial ruin which will prevent you from giving the child a health life.
Oh, and I forgot the most common option- go without any form of prenatal or birth care, have the baby in a public restroom and drop it off in the nearest fire station, hospital or dumpster. There's worse things you can do to that "product of conception" than abortion at 8 weeks, like throwing it out a 4th story window, or leaving it in the rain to starve or freeze after a proper gestation...
Agreed that the questions you list are important. What I would add is that if the nation could reach some point of consensus on what responses to the previous moral questions of worth mean, then, as a society, we would be in a much better position to collaborate on managing the economic cost, such as those you list.
In other words, if enough people agreed that it is unacceptable to have millions of people continually suffer from a lack of social justice that leads the fear of violence, economic ruin, etc., to trump the rights of life, liberty, etc., (creating a situation akin to Sophie's Choice), then the subsequent resources allocated could benefit all those involved, with much less division or animosity than is usually found.
1. Pregnancy cost - can be almost nothing (additional food & clothing, minimal doctor's visits WITH good insurance) up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars (high risk pregnancies, needing to take long unpaid leave, etc.)
2. Rearing an unwanted child - depends on how "unwanted". If the kid is bounced around the system for a couple of years (ie. totally unwanted), the cost skyrockets, because they will have learned bad habits from their parents and foster parents, and may need constant supervision to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. On the flip side, private agency adoption is really expensive, so a lot of couples who WANT to adopt can't afford that route and are scared by the risks posed by the foster care system.
3. Giving a child up for adoption - can vary from "adoptive parents pay YOU" to the normal costs of pregnancy & birth; not to mention emotional costs.
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The real issues
2. How costly is rearing an unwanted child?
3. How costly is giving a child up for adoption?
Purely talking about "cost" in terms of money,
2. See 1.
3. If you want to hand the baby over to THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, or any number of private agencies, I think you can get a pretty decent amount of money to pay for care, assuming you are young, healthy, don't have any genetic disorders and are white. Also assuming that the baby turns out healthy, free of birth defects and white. Even if you did this, it's assuming that you can keep your job during pregnancy, (which, for me anyway, would not be an option-some of the chemicals I handle are mutagenic and teratogenic, so I'd be just as compassionate to have an abortion, rather than a stillbirth some months later...) or find a comparable job before you get visibly pregnant and people stop considering you once they lay eyes on you.
Re: Purely talking about "cost" in terms of money,
Re: Purely talking about "cost" in terms of money,
Some times, compromise is death and one party in a debate is 100% correct.
re: 3
Re: Careful, now
I'm pretty sure you can find agencies who will basically "buy" your pregnancy, that is, the agency charges $50,000 or so to the adoptive couple, who foot the bill for pre-natal care, birth services and what-not. Of course, then you're just a baby-gestating machine, and heaven forbid you develop some kind of fondness for the spawn in your gut, you're left either facing a crushing separation or financial ruin which will prevent you from giving the child a health life.
Oh, and I forgot the most common option- go without any form of prenatal or birth care, have the baby in a public restroom and drop it off in the nearest fire station, hospital or dumpster. There's worse things you can do to that "product of conception" than abortion at 8 weeks, like throwing it out a 4th story window, or leaving it in the rain to starve or freeze after a proper gestation...
Re: Careful, now
Re: The real issues
Very costly.
Worth vs. Cost
In other words, if enough people agreed that it is unacceptable to have millions of people continually suffer from a lack of social justice that leads the fear of violence, economic ruin, etc., to trump the rights of life, liberty, etc., (creating a situation akin to Sophie's Choice), then the subsequent resources allocated could benefit all those involved, with much less division or animosity than is usually found.
Re: The real issues
2. Rearing an unwanted child - depends on how "unwanted". If the kid is bounced around the system for a couple of years (ie. totally unwanted), the cost skyrockets, because they will have learned bad habits from their parents and foster parents, and may need constant supervision to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. On the flip side, private agency adoption is really expensive, so a lot of couples who WANT to adopt can't afford that route and are scared by the risks posed by the foster care system.
3. Giving a child up for adoption - can vary from "adoptive parents pay YOU" to the normal costs of pregnancy & birth; not to mention emotional costs.