Human Maturation::


Concept of Adulthood
--------------------
The legal status of "adult" is earned by passing oral and scenario
simulation tests administered at the local, state, and federal levels,
in that order, and on an appeals basis.  These tests can examine only
those areas of conduct that impinge upon the rights of others and must
distinguish only on the basis of performance in these areas.  Status
as an adult is suspended while a convicted individual is imprisoned
for a crime, and only then.  In particular, the right to vote and to
hold public office are restored upon release.  The property of an
imprisoned individual remains his property.

To be an adult, an individual must be sexually mature or at least 18
years of age.

A non-adult who is sexually mature or at least 18 years of age cannot
be impeded, other than by the requirement of satisfactory test
performance, in any attempt to achieve the status of adult.

Upon successful passage of an adulthood test, the individual is issued
a certificate which is encrypted in a mutable passphrase of his
choice, which can be presented as sufficient proof of adult status for
any anonymous but adult-only activity.  It is a minor crime to reveal
the passphrase, or decrypted certificate, to a non-adult.

The adulthood certificate contains a 46 bit number chosen by taking a
true random 46 bit number and incrementing it until a number results
which is not in the database.  To this 46 bit number is appended a 20
bit checksum of the number formed from the 20 least significant bits
of the product of the lower 26, and the upper 20 bits shifted 26 bits
toward the least significant bit.  From the number and the checksum a
64 bit certificate identifier is formed.  The certificate identifier
is decrypted (signature mode) using an asymmetric keypair whose
decryption key is held in confidence by the state, and whose
encryption (verification) key is widely published.  A 32 bit sequence
identifier is appended, and used to identify which keypair was used in
the decryption operation.  Sequence identifiers must be allocated
using the same random-unique technique as for certificate numbers
themselves.  The state is forbidden to store any information which
would facilitate identification of the individual to whom the
certificate has been issued.  The state must make available a fee-free
mechanism whereby the current validity of the certificate identifier
can be verified.  This mechanism cannot maintain any record of
verification queries.

Certificate and sequence identifiers are never reused.

A compromise of a certificate causes the entry for that certificate to
be flagged invalid in the database.  A compromise of a certification
keypair causes the entries for all certificates signed with that
keypair to be flagged invalid.  Certificates cannot otherwise be
invalidated.

Compromise of a certificate means that the passphrase for the
certificate, or the decrypted certificate, has been made accessible
to non-adults.

Compromise of a certification keypair means that the private portion
of the keypair has been made accessible to anyone who is not a state
employee who is formally a trustee of the keypair.  There must be only
one such trustee per testing facility.

No law can forbid, restrict, or provide penalties for, the exchange
and distribution of adulthood certificates among adults.

Distinctions of Adults
----------------------
Only adults can work as state employees (including work in the armed
forces), pilot motor-driven vehicles on public roads, airways, or
waterways without adult supervision, take custody of or operate a
purpose designed deadly weapon without adult supervision, hold public
office, vote in elections for public office, be paid for more than
twenty hours of work per week, control land through ownership, or
enter into contract enforceable at court, except that non-adults can
be recipients in money contracts.

Prohibition of Sexual Acts by Adults with Non-Adults
----------------------------------------------------
For the purposes of this section, a sexual act is defined as any
deliberate physical contact of any portion of one individual's
body with the uncovered genitals, defecatory organs, or breasts of
another individual's body, except for medical or sanitary purposes
by or with the consent of at least one parent/guardian.

It is unlawful for an adult to engage in a sexual act with a non-adult.

It is unlawful for an adult to generate, possess, obtain, or transfer,
or to incite the generation, possession, obtaining, or transfer, of a
photograph or other recording of a non-adult engaged in a sexual act.

Rights of Children and Parents
------------------------------
Guardians can under no circumstances be forced to lose custody of a
child, except as a sometime corollary of separation of previously
cohabitating parents or guardians, or in the case of physical abuse of
the child by the guardian which has lead to conviction in a court of
law, or in the case of a protracted failure, of documented duration
exceeding 6 months, to provide for the needs of the child as
enumerated forthwith.  All guardians are legally bound to provide for
the housing, nutritional, educational, and medical needs of their
guardees.  These requirements are to be detailed in a widely available
form.

The requirements set forth regarding accomodation of housing needs
must not extend beyond the basic necessity of protection from the
elements and from infectious or toxic filth in the domicile.  The
requirements set forth regarding education must not dictate enrollment
in a formal program, or otherwise require the guardian to pay for the
education of the guardee, and in any case must not require education
outside the range of basic skills limited to arithmetic,
reading/writing in the language of state business, and a basic
understanding of this document.  A basic understanding of this
document must be an educational requirement.  The requirements set
forth regarding accomodation of medical needs must not mandate
enrollment, subscription, admission, or submission to any program on
the basis of state, industry, or peer recognition or sanction, and
must not mandate the use of any psychoactive drug as defined in
.

If a child is without guardian, it is the responsibility of the state
to provide for the needs of the child and with unremitting speed to
seek a foster guardian.  If a child is without guardian by reason of
the guardian's imprisonment, the child must be returned to the custody
of the imprisoned guardian upon his/her release.

A guardian or pair of guardians can mutually transfer a child and
guardianship therefore, to another guardian or pair of guardians.  The
receiving guardians assume all the responsibilities, and gain all the
privileges, of guardianship enumerated herein.

In the case that guardians separate, the child can choose which
guardian to live with, or choose to split time between the two.  The
guardian chosen by the child assumes all the legal responsibilities of
parenthood.  If the child expresses no preference, but the guardians
have worked out their own mutual preference, the parents' preference
takes effect.  If the child expresses no preference, and neither
guardian wants custody or both guardians want custody, then if one of
the guardians is the genetic mother who personally exclusively
breast-fed or breast-feeds the child, custody is hers, unless the
mother has a record which includes conviction for violent crime and
the father's does not.  If the terms of the foregoing are not
satisfied, then the guardian who is distinguished by being the most
immediate genetic ancestor gains custody, unless that guardian has a
record which includes conviction for violent crime.  If the terms of
the foregoing are not satisfied, then the judge of the court decides
who will gain custody, on the basis of who is best suited to
provide for the needs (enumerated above) of the child, and who is most
emotionally and intellectually suited to the demands of guardianship.

Temporary custodial rights of at least one day per week (which can be
accumulated for up to a year to permit accumulation of lengthy
contiguous periods of custody), by a genetic parent, or by anyone who
was formerly a guardian and with whom the child expresses a desire to
spend time, cannot be denied, except that law can specify a basis for
denial if the prospective temporary custodian has been convicted of a
violent crime.

In any arrangement of temporary custody, the temporary custodian must
promptly honor requests of the child to be returned to a current
guardian that persist for more than 24 hours, within the limits of
transportation time, and must immediately report the requests, within
the limits of available means of communication.

Child Support
-------------
In the case that a sex act between a man and a woman results in
conception, then he can, at his sole discretion, abandon financial
responsibility for any resulting child, but if he abandons
responsibility, he must fully pay for the immediate medical expenses
of childbirth or for the killing and extraction of the unborn child,
between which the woman can choose at her sole discretion.

Any such declaration of abandonment of financial responsibility must
be officially supplied to the state at most 3 months after conception,
or within one week of first officially learning that a conception or
birth has occured.  The woman must be informed of the declaration as
quickly as possible, and if at all possible, within 24 hours of
receipt.

In the case that the man abandons financial responsibility, he
abandons any right to visiting or temporary custody of the child that
results from the pregnancy, but he must be permitted to visit or take
temporary custody if the child requests it, or if he requests it and
the mother permits it, in the manner set forth in
.

If the father is aware of the pregnancy, and does not register an
affidavit, he must support the child, at a rate of up to one third of
an average wage.  At his discretion, the father can deliver all of the
support by transfering to the current guardian actual goods needed to
provide for the child, or non-transferable contracts that can be
redeemed only for those goods.

Paid Surrogacy and Sterilization
--------------------------------
No law can forbid, restrict, or impair, the right of an individual to
accept payment as an inducement for carrying a surrogate pregnancy, or
to enter a contract to that effect, or of an individual or
incorporated entity to act as a donor, supplying monetary or
non-monetary inducement to another individual to carry a surrogate
pregnancy, or to enter a contract to that effect, except as follows.
No contract can abridge the right of the surrogate to terminate the
pregnancy, by a medical procedure or otherwise, though a contract of
surrogacy can specify that in that case, payment to the surrogate is
withheld, and that any payments already made to the surrogate must be
returned in full, though no additional payment by the surrogate can be
specified.

No law can forbid, restrict, or impair, the right of an individual to
accept payment as an inducement for sterilization, and to enter a
contract to that effect, or of an individual or incorporated entity to
act as a donor, supplying monetary or non-monetary inducement to
another individual to undergo reversible or non-reversible
sterilization, or to enter a contract to that effect, except as
follows.  A non-reversible sterilization patient must agree to the
procedure in contract at least twice, separated by at least one year.
No contract can bind an individual who has undergone a reversible
sterilization to reverse it, though a contract for sterilization can
specificat that in that case, further payments to the sterilization
patient are withheld, and any payments already made to the patient
must be returned in full, though no additional payment by the patenti
can be specified.

As with any business relationship, the incorporated entity cannot
reveal the identity of donors, surrogates, sterilizees, or information
about transactions involving them, except at the explicit request of
all implicated in a disclosure.