The Children's Era: The Bureau of the Child-to-Be

    The Children's Era: The Bureau of the Child-to-Be

      Not only does Sanger imagine a world in which unborn babies have a super-advanced grasp of the English language and say things like…

      No, thank you! I don't care to be born at all if I cannot be well-born. Good-bye! (89)

      …but she also imagines a world in which unborn children are apparently also mature enough to become bureaucrats.

      The Bureau of the Child-to-Be is an imaginary government agency Sanger dreams up that would help children decide if they wished to be born or not.

      Comparing such a bureau to an employment agency, she concludes. "Children ought to have at least the same privilege as cooks," (70) to decide if they want to join a household or not:

      Sometimes in idle moments I like to think it would be a very good scheme to have a bureau of the Child-to-be. (71)

      Sometimes in our idle moments we like to think about whether it would be possible to shrink elephants down to the size of housecats and keep them as pets. We all have these idle thoughts, Sanger.