Rule of thumb, when the government uses its power to start officially excluding people from things, those things normally turn out bad.
I know we have all joked at some point or another that there are just some people that should't have children, but what if the government actually made that into law? Indiana is doing it. They are preparing legislation that would prohibit gays, lesbians, and single people from using in vitro fertilization to conceive children without a special waiver from the government. Even married couples who are using these methods to conceive would have to request a waiver from the state to have children. If that last sentence sent chills up your spine like it did mine then it bears repeating; "THESE COUPLES WOULD HAVE TO REQUEST A WAIVER FROM THE STATE TO HAVE CHILDREN". As an unmarried straight male I don't want to understate the obvious anti-gay goal of the law, and if I appear to do so it is not my intent. On its face it is yet another attack on the rights of the gay/lesbian community, but it is the larger implications of this law that are just unbelievable. The fact that the right wing wants to know if you go to church or how much money you make before you can conceive a child should make those of us in the heterosexual community realize that these wing-nuts are not just attacking our gay/lesbian brothers and sisters, they are attacking us all.
Now the wing-nut Republican cynic would make the argument that if the government can exclude child molesters from adopting children and bank robbers from voting, why can't it exclude people it deems unfit from having children? Of course that argument is complete bullshit. The inclusion of "single-people" means the government of Indiana is willing to step into previously unchartered territory.
Our society has made a conscious decision that bank robbery and child molestation are so unacceptable that they are against the law. Since these restrictions are based entirely on the fact that the behavior itself is illegal then the government has a right to control it. When the government bans homosexuality or requires that everybody be married then and only then will this go from being a matter of choice (or nature) to a matter of law. In reality the wing-nuts will never be able to muster enough support for anything like truly banning homosexuality or many of the other "moral" issues that are important to them so they must resort to covert attacks on civil liberties. This strategy has led to various state initiatives and ballot measures that have not only eroded civil rights but have have gradually succeeded in chipping away at the discourse in the society. Now it seems that the list of unacceptable behavior has grown recently to include single people.
Consider the ramifications of such a law taken to its fullest extent. What if a person gets a waiver and conceives a child according to the "law", and then decides to get a divorce? Does that mean that the state will then come and take the child because said individual no longer meets the standards of the original permit. That is effectively what happens when you get a drivers license, the state is granting you permission to drive for a set period of time and at any time that license if subject to review. If you have too many accidents, or if you get too old, or your vision gets worse you have to be reevaluated. If you don't meet the requirements then your license is taken away. Once your license is taken away and you decide to continue driving without the states "blessing" then eventually if you are caught you will face jail time. See where I'm going here? The next step will be forced abortions. The republican party has shown that they are adept at wrapping hateful policies in simple right and wrong moral platitudes to appeal to the simpletons in our society. It is not so far fetched that this policy can go from the state legislature of Indiana to a national referendum within a few months legitimized by a castrated media who is all to willing to turn everything into a "left versus right" spectacle for ratings. Imagine a Dick Cheney administration with Secretary of HHS James Dobson signing off on your birth permit. This is a slippery slope, once you let the government in to an issue like this there is no telling where it will stop.