Bigamists and Underaged Fathers at Work

SEX - In Britain a 13-year-old boy is a new father of a bouncing baby girl. His "girlfriend", now 15, was impregnated at the age of 14 when she missed one of her birth control pills.

Meanwhile in the United States, a 71-year-old conman has confessed to bigamy, having married 19-22 times.

Now obviously I have a lot to talk about here. On one hand we have a kid who when asked about how he would support the baby financially replied "What does financially mean?" and on the other hand we have an old charmer who has been marrying women and ripping them off financially.

Lets start with the underage father, known as Alfie, who was 12 at the time he first had sex. His father (now a grandfather) has a total of 9 children. Obviously not the greatest role model when it comes to fatherly restraint.

"I thought it would be good to have a baby. I didn't really think about how we would afford it," says young Alfie. "I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me 10 pounds [about $15 US]."

The British girl, Chantelle, joins an alarming statistic. Approx. 7,000 girls under the age of 16 get pregnant and have children every year in Britain. Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe, 27 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19, but it pales in comparison to the United States where the teen pregnancy rate is 44 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19.

Evidently neither the boy or girl thought this seriously through and are taking their parents for granted that they will support their new grandchildren. The grandparents hardly have much choice in the matter either.

Alfie's father failed to warn his kids about the dangers of teen pregnancy, and Alfie himself should have been doubly cautious and worn a condom.

Meanwhile 71-year-old Irish-American conman and bigamist Oliver Killeen has been charged with a single count of bigamy, despite admitting to having at least 19 wives. Investigators believe there might be another 3, bringing his total to 22.

Killeen fathered nine children with his first wife, Mary (who died in 1974), and is believed to have had over 50 children with his 19-22 wives.

SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE.

Why would anyone want that many kids? Bragging rights? Its not like they're Conan the Barbarian, going from town to town and knocking up all the damsels in distress. Alfie can be excused for being a stupid kid that doesn't know any better, but Oliver Killeen just went on a marriage and fathering spree.

Was it greed? No. Did they just not realize what they were doing? Maybe.

I think the biggest culprits is stupidity (I will come back to this idea) and religion, in this case Catholicism as both Alfie and Oliver were born-and-raised Catholics... which means no condoms, no birth control, no abortions.

And apparently not many morals. How many lives has Oliver Killeen ruined with his bigamy? Lots. And Alfie? He's already ruined his life, Chantelle's life, and likely the life of his newborn daughter.

Chantelle is equally guilty for forgetting her birth control pills and failing to get an abortion. The grandparents must think these very young parents will be able to cope, but that is, honestly, a trailer-park mentality.

Seriously, if there's one law of the universe it is that stupid people breed constantly, and trailer parks have unusually high birth rates. They're not the brightest, they don't have many future prospects, so they get bored, screw around and the next thing you know they're on Jerry Springer bragging about how many kids they've fathered and their ex's fighting over them.

Evidently the sex education we're teaching in schools is missing an important point: All the damage that happens when people don't think ahead.

We know its statistically true that lower IQ people have more children, likely because they have fewer career prospects and don't think ahead, but our schools need to be teaching kids more about planning their futures so that they realize there's more to life than making babies.