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Comment by jdmitch | Hacker News Reader

In a lot of the world Jan. 1 is everyone's birthday. Or Dec. 31 (The article cites Somalia, Sudan and Vietnam as other examples, but I have been to several other countries where the majority of the rural population has the same issue). It's not really a big deal - some people just don't care what the exact date was that they were born. It seems a bit culturally imperialistic to impose that norm on a lot of issues (aid distribution, human rights, passport standards, etc.)

This is the quote cited from the UN report, which makes a case for the importance of registration pragmatically:

>“Birth registration is instrumental in safeguarding other human rights because it provides the official ‘proof’ of a child’s existence,”

... but it begs the question for any parent in this situation: "Why do I need proof, my child is right here in front of me?!"

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It is, like most forms of official identity, primarily for the benefit of official databases and categorisation systems. But not entirely:

Birth registration and death registration are a matched pair that enable the tracking and prevention of certain kinds of abuse. In Victorian England, way before the availability of contraception or abortion, there was "baby farming". This involved a oneoff payment to send an unwanted infant to be "looked after" with no further contact. The baby farms had very high mortality rates, which everyone turned a blind eye to. This was eventually stamped out. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Dyer

The most famous example of "why do I care about my birth certificate" is of course Barack Obama. Some people were determined to make it very important.

Which other nations require native birth for position?

Are you even trying with the last paragraph? They need to know how to verify your child's existence to make sure you aren't crazy and when to send him to school among many things?

Well, neither of those things represents a benefit to the parent... registration appears to be something governments like in order to make things easier for themselves. Why is it surprising that parents wouldn't care?

Your child has been kidnapped and brainwashwd, and the kidnappers claim the he his their son. I challenge you to prove otherwise. A birth certificate would come in handy.

What stops someone from stealing my cats out of my apartment?

1.) Most people don't want to.

And if they did get stolen, how would I prove they were mine? I have no registered documentation of the cats!

Except for photos, and dozens of individuals who have seen me with the cats.

You don't need a government certificate to bring a civil or criminal case against someone.

What stops someone from stealing my cats out of my apartment?

1.) Most people don't want to.

Cats are plentiful...I can get one anywhere. Children, on the other hand, are hard to come by. Ask anyone who paid $20k for fertility treatments and still couldn't have a child. More nefarious types can't steal your cats and make them soldiers, or sell them as sex slaves like they can your children.

To prove anything it should contain (securely) timestamped DNA scan.

A birth certificate would come in handy.

As would a DNA based paternity test. No need for government issued papers.

As would a DNA based paternity test. No need for government issued papers

A country that can't even issue birth certificates can do DNA testing?

FedEx services a large area.

Good point, but isn't it still much easier to have the parents sign a piece of paper and keep it in a hall of records than to constantly mail off dna samples for testing? I'm sure that presenting the birth certificate is much quicker and cheapet than mail order dna tests.

Leaving aside the many other problems with your scenario, why would a birth certificate come in handy? At best, it would prove that you had a child at some point. It certainly wouldn't show that any particular child was yours (unlike a paternity test).

Hence why they hack it, and say "We'll give you money if your child is 'registered'".

i was working in louisiana for a while, a friend told me that they have exactly one ancient printer that is capable of printing birth certificates. nobody dares to touch it, because _if_ for whatever reason that printer breaks, kids can no longer be officially born in the state of louisiana.

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