Since being spoiled for a few decades by the Nazis, eugenics is becoming all the rage again. The most recent example is a new program in White County, Tennessee, which offers inmates the option of having time removed from their jail sentence if they agree to undergo a vasectomy or a birth control implant.

General Sessions Court Judge Sam Benningfield said that when he signed the order he had the best interest of the inmates in mind. “I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, to not to be burdened with children. This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves,” Benningfield reportedly said. “I understand it won’t be entirely successful but if you reach two or three people, maybe that’s two or three kids not being born under the influence of drugs. I see it as a win, win.”

Don't you just love it, when government officials are looking out for you?

Male inmates can undergo a vasectomy while women can agree to be given a contraceptive implant. If they agree to it they will have 30 days taken off their jail time. According to news reports, 32 women have thus far received the implant and 38 men are awaiting the scary scissors.

I'm horrified by this. But I kind of just figured that this was some wacky judge who came up with a crazy idea. I was therefore a bit disturbed to see that it seems pretty popular. In perusing comments on news stories, there seems to be a number of arguments in support of this no good horrible very bad idea.

Here's some brief snippets from some of the arguments I saw online which were wildly in favor of this plan.

The "It's about the children" argument.

A foster family I know is currently taking care of 3 kids whose mom has been on drugs their whole life. The mom is pregnant again, still on drugs. I see how messed up these kids are, they all have behavioral issues and have trouble living normal lives. The older kids are only in elementary school and are already 2 grade levels behind. Imagine the social implications of being two years older than your peers in kindergarten. The infant screams constantly because she was a drug baby. I would have given ANYTHING for their mom to be given this kind of option. These kids don't deserve this kind of life. Another family they helped has lost 7 kids to the system so far. Seven. This is a great idea.

The Ruth Vader Ginsburg school of thought.

Do you really want these people breeding?

The “I heart contraception” crowd.

This is a great idea.  I would give a larger incentive to the prison population in general, maybe a year or more.  I'm glad conservatives see the value in this, as they are typically against contraception and those who dispense it. 

Straight-up racism or as I call it "The Margaret Sanger Theory of Social Purification."

Finally, a common sense approach to the criminal breeding habits of inner city thugs.  

Big picture argument!

Yea but think about the money you're saving by not having to pay for a drug addicted baby to be born or incarcerated later in life. Gotta look at the big picture. 

And then the argument for fiscal sanity!!!

this is about reducing the cost to society of unwanted children

And how about this interesting anti-abortion argument for coerced vasectomies?

Maybe the judge values life and the quality of life that children born into that type of environment would have.  This way, it may save countless of abortions.

These arguments have all been made before, folks:

“The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortions, in order subsequently to breed a race of degenerates burdened with illnesses.” —Adolf Hitler