Elizabeth Escalona, the mother who beat her two-year old daughter and glued her hands to the wall, received a ninety-nine year sentence.  One more year would have made it a nice, even, centennial but ninety-nine works as well.  She must serve thirty years before being eligible for parole.  At her trial she cried when looking at the photos of the daughter she abused.  The prosecutor, Eren Price correctly stated, “Ms. Escalona, if you can do it, you can look at it”.  Justice has been served in this case.  But that is not the largest issue that needs to be addressed here.  The larger issue is, why should a woman, a drug abuser who hung around with gang members, be allowed to birth five children?  While we certainly don’t want to limit loving families to one child as the Chinese do, we do need to gain some control in a situation like this.  Clearly this woman was unfit to be a mother.  On top of that, she had her first child at fourteen and at twenty-three, has five.  At what point does the state, or more correctly, society, have a right to intercede and say enough is enough.  Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for this woman’s escapades and children have the right not to have to be born to a woman who is not much more evolved than the average farm animal.  The birth father also needs to be held accountable as she didn’t get herself pregnant.  Now I know there are lots of people who would find the idea of government intervention scary even in these types of cases but I would disagree.  If the government has the right to imprison and execute people, it should have the right to control the re-production of irresponsible people who abuse their children and live off the government, ultimately taxpayers.  Let me be clear, there is a great distinction between people who are poor and love their children and people who are poor or rich and beat the hell out of their kids, in this case, the two-year old was beaten in to a coma.  In the end, all that matters, are these poor, suffering children who may be irreversibly damaged.  We must protect the unborn from being born to people who will use them as punching bags.  It’s that simple and the only humane thing to do.