Garrett On Sterilisation

David Garrett is no stranger to controversy. He is ACT's version of Hone Harawira - liable to shoot his mouth off at any moment.

Yesterday, in a comment on a post by David Farrar on Kiwiblog about the idea of sterilising bad parents, Garrett said:

The above is a very thoughtful post – how sad that the first three comments are of the “oh no it’s all too dreadful, let’s not discuss it” variety. We have nurse visits and other “interventions” now, and have had for 20 years. The problem has simply got worse. In my view, there can be nothing more vile than the abuse and killing of helpless children. That fact alone means that at some point we need to have a discussion about this…no matter how distasteful or reminiscent (however vaguely) of “Brave New World” such a discussion might be.

NB This post contains my PERSONAL views, which are not necessarily shared by my colleagues.

He later commented on the same thread:

If – say – $5000 was paid to the likes of both parents of the Kahui twins if they chose to be sterilized, this would address many of ben’s and others’ concerns. Nothing compulsory, just an option. To take Kahui-King as examples, how much is it costing the state now to care for the children Maxyna King has had removed from her? How much will it cost to care for the 6 or 8 more she may have before menopause? How much is it costing for CYF to monitor the well being of Chris Kahui’s latest offspring? $5,000 to each of them is ludicrously cheap by comparison.

Garrett's supporters have leapt to his defence, claiming he does not argue in favour of forcibly sterilising anyone. But then in a blog post written by him yesterday about abusive parents he said:

I say that one abused child should move the onus onto the parents of that child to show that they are fit to have the care of more children, and allow the authorities to determine whether they can.

Does this mean Garrett favours forcible sterilisation of "bad parents"? He clearly favours some form of state intervention. But how would we be able to stop "bad parents" from breeding, unless we sterilised them?

So the only conclusion to draw is that, despite the best efforts of his apologists, David Garrett really would like to forcibly sterilise "bad parents".