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News & ArtsTuesday, February 17, 2009
News Better Late...
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:44 AM
DNA test will be performed to determine whether a 13-year-old boy fathered a baby with his 15-year-old girlfriend, his spokesman said yesterday.
First, a girlfriend, then a baby, and finally a spokesman.
The test comes after a Sunday tabloid newspaper reported that other teenage boys have come forward claiming to be the father of newborn Maisie Roxanne.
No one could've predicted that other boys might have been involved with that girl...
Spokesman Max Clifford said the parents of Alfie Patten, 13, said the tests would be done "as soon as possible" to determine paternity "I think that having read the News of the World yesterday, it would be prudent to have a DNA test," Mr. Clifford said.
Yes, it would be prudent to have a DNA test now. By all means let's have some prudence—let's take all reasonable precautions—now. Now that the paternity of your 13-year-old son’s daughter is in dispute. Time for some prudence. Now.
2
How come hospitals don't do DNA tests at birth? Something tells me Maury is standing in the way of such common sense.
4
I know it's it's tragic, their lives are ruined, blah blah blah, but this story is like a long, international episode of Maury, and part of me loves it.
6
If were Mr. Povich, I would throw a truckload of money at these families to get them to announce the results on the Maury show. Why he's neglected to seize this opportunity is absolutely beyond me.
10
No, no, no prusence, more hysteria! Let's turn this into even MORE of a freak show! More hysteria! Hysteria is fun!
13
I cringe about this one. It really bothers me too, because this is nothing new unfortunately. When I was 13 (which was ten years ago), girls in my class were already having sex. Though I desperately wanted a boyfriend at the age of 13, I didn't want what they were doing. Perhaps I had more esteem than I had realized in middle school. (Self value should seriously be taught along with sex-ed.)
I think this whole sex in middle school thing happens because kids want to think they're so grown up. They view sex as a grown up thing to do, so what better way to prove it.
I think this whole sex in middle school thing happens because kids want to think they're so grown up. They view sex as a grown up thing to do, so what better way to prove it.
15
I wonder how much money the poor boy's parents made off that tabloids. Seems likely that this was a motivating factor behind their failure to realize that their pre-pubescent boy was unlikely to have fathered the child of the local mattress-backed girl.
17
As funny/tragic as this story is, why did it even make international news? 13 year old girls giving birth isn't that unusual.
@13 -- Maybe they have sex because it is fun and feels good. Maybe we should all realize that's the way life works, and tell them about the potential consequences of it. And not shame teenagers for doing what teenagers have been doing since humanity began.
@13 -- Maybe they have sex because it is fun and feels good. Maybe we should all realize that's the way life works, and tell them about the potential consequences of it. And not shame teenagers for doing what teenagers have been doing since humanity began.
18
@17: 13 year old girls giving birth in Africa is not unusual. This story makes the news because they're white and from a civilized European country with an aggressive tabloid culture.
19
17 & 18: it made the news because of the unusual age of the father, combined with the fact that he looks like he hasn't even hit puberty yet, let alone what he looked like 10 months ago.
20
@17: "And not shame teenagers for doing what teenagers have been doing since humanity began."
You mean, popping out a kid a year, every year, the moment she starts menstruating until she dies at the age of twenty, and until he dies at the age of thirty?
Yeah, let's do things the way nature meant it to be.
You mean, popping out a kid a year, every year, the moment she starts menstruating until she dies at the age of twenty, and until he dies at the age of thirty?
Yeah, let's do things the way nature meant it to be.
21
What I don't understand is why her parents didn't get her an abortion. Instead, they've destroyed their child's life and turned her into a circus act.
23
An abortion might be more traumatizing than having the child.
Did anyone even consider adoption, let alone birth control? When do they start sex ed in their part of England?
Did anyone even consider adoption, let alone birth control? When do they start sex ed in their part of England?
24
23 - No. It's not. Nice little right-wing myth, but it ain't.
Dan - thanks for the slut-shaming. Just when I was thinking your blog was a place I could avoid it.
Dan - thanks for the slut-shaming. Just when I was thinking your blog was a place I could avoid it.
25
@21, 22: Maybe _she_ didn't want to get an abortion. Nice hypocrisy, there, pro-"choice"rs.
@24: 23 didn't say that abortion _is_ more traumatic than giving birth, s/he said it _might_ be - are you actually denying that there are some individuals for whom this would be the case? How you respond to various events is not necessarily how everyone else would respond.
Also, it's not "slut-shaming," it's dumbass-shaming.
@24: 23 didn't say that abortion _is_ more traumatic than giving birth, s/he said it _might_ be - are you actually denying that there are some individuals for whom this would be the case? How you respond to various events is not necessarily how everyone else would respond.
Also, it's not "slut-shaming," it's dumbass-shaming.
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