Well, he has just made the national news for it. Surely that's the start of some public humiliation right there.

I think that his penis should carry a warning label!

Ha! That's hilarious Terriks!

The article says he hasn't broken any laws but if fathering children that you have no reasonable expectation of being able to support isn't breaking a law, then it should be. And there is a way to prevent him from fathering more..........

I can hardly believe I'm thinking this way but this is such an extreme case it's hard for me to fall on the humanitarian/liberal side of this issue.

Think of how much taxpayer money would be left over to save unwanted pets if we spayed and neutered people like this! Mothers and father both!

You can't fix stupid.

You may not be able to fix stupid, but you can pass on the gene :(

In most states, if there is a court order for child support and the parent fails to pay they can be jailed for contempt. Maybe since he's being garnished already and isn't willfully not paying, it wouldn't apply here. I'd hate to use taxpayer $$ to jail him for non-support or contempt, but it would be cheaper than supporting all those kids (assuming some might be on welfare) and would certainly prevent him from making more kids.

I beg to differ, Dlm. I think indeed you ARE falling on the humanitarian/liberal side of the issue! With freedom comes great responsibility. That's the price tag. Always!

Except in America, that price tag is paid by the tax payers who actually have jobs that pay more than minimum wage and who don't have dozens of kids they can't support :(

Poor babies....

Olychick! You echo my thoughts exactly and that's what I told my daughter this morning. Put him away. Force the system on him and automatic birth control.

What really got my attention too is that after he told the courts he'd stop having children, he went out and had some more! I don't know what the word would be for it, but I know stupid is too kind and much smarter than he is. I just don't get it. I have empathy for Octomom, while what she did wasn't very bright, it was obvious she wanted kids and wanted a family. She just bit off more than she could chew and she's paying dearly for it. This guy is just out having fun and could care less. 1.49/month for child support, that's embarrassing.

There are 11 women who have borne him children. Don't you think some of them are a bit culpable too? I am about as liberal as you can get, but when it comes to people breeding indiscriminately, I lean VERY far to the right.

Too many young women actually WANT to get pregnant and they just have no idea how much work it is to be a responsible parent. It's so sad.

I sometimes wish we could birth control in the drinking water.

Beagles, I'm saying that if one chooses to exercise "freedom" to be sexually active with many partners, one must also exercise the responsibility that comes with that freedom! Some would prefer to think that freedom means living free from consequences, but having sex obviously can have serious, life-altering repercussions--pregancy certainly can result, but also STD's.

Adults in a free society choose actions, then must take the responsibility to bear whatever consequences those actions produce.

It is almost impossible to understand some people!! What is he thinking?

If he's only 33 and doesn't change his behavior, he could end up having a hundred kids! Literally.

stinky-gardener I know what you meant. And I agree- that's the way it should be. Unfortunately, that isn't the way it is in our society. This man essentially does have freedom from the repercussions of his choices as he is not suffering any consequences from having children he cannot support. Instead, the only people who pay for the lack of personal responsibility exhibited by a portion of the population are responsible people who have jobs and pay taxes to support bad decisions made by others. If this man does have an STD, do you think he will pay privately for his medical care w/ the half of his minimum-wage paycheck he has left, or do you think the taxpayers will pay? I would be willing to bet we are already paying to support the children he had who he cannot support.

Until there are actual consequences for this type of behavior, there's no reason for him to choose anything different.

It's only a matter of time until he gets a reality show. It seems like something right for that genre. Then maybe he'll be able to earn enough to pay for the kids.

It's really disgusting.

Sat down for a few & saw this. Wow! Anyone watch the video from 2009?

Have to say that something needs to be done. I bet he is also on gov't assistance because he's not left with enough to survive. I wish the story said how many each woman has with him. We don't know if the women are married & where they get help from. My guess would be there are 4 women that he's regularly had in his life & he keeps going back to them. He claims to know their names & birthdays. The one said he's good about giving her milk money even though she doesn't get support. My guess; he's getting some sort of help; probably gets food vouchers. Reminds me of Cody Brown.

It's in the video; "they know what they're getting into" or what ever he said about them knowing that if they get knocked up; they can get in line with the rest.

Something needs to be done. The government is broke; yet I know more people that are on public assistance then when I applied in the 80's. How I did not qualify is beyond me; yet I see all these people being reckless & somehow getting it. They trade food vouchers for cigs. They have more kids. There should be some kind of law that people go on long term birth control once they enter the system so they do not pop out more kids while on it- IUD or the Essure & in his case; they should offer vasectomy. They will cry it's against their rights to deny them having more children while on public assistance. I've seen this with my own eyes. Actually know of one that has been popping out 1 a year; is now on #4; husband is laid off; last kid has some sort of disability & won't be 1 until the summer. Apparently she's applying for social security to have gov't assistance for him. They don't have health insurance through his work so she gets medicaid. Some how they got a nice sized tax return & spent it recklessly.

I don't talk about our situation; cancer killed us financially. When my hub went back to work 4/2010 after being out 7 months; he was on light duty until he was physically able to haul cars again. He worked slow & was just getting back into the swing when his company lost our bread & butter; about 6 months after he went back- 10 months after treatment ended. He was dealing with a bad immune system still; had MRSA; his Lupus was flaring & he kept getting thrush. He was exhausted; my private hell was that his cancer would return in his lungs. He went back to the light duty work & in March 2011 his company lost every other account they had except 1. With 28 years in; he was forced to jump ship to a job making 50% less. People that did not have his years in; somehow cut a deal when their company went under & they slid into my hubs board; keeping their original hire date with the old company which pushed them ahead of my hub. Friends of our have lost trucks; filed bankruptcy.

We've tried to get my hub out of the new job since August 2011 & it finally happened in March; then he was out of work 3 weeks. I don't know what the future will hold. His old company was forced into bankruptcy the other day; so a few of his friends that were lucky to keep their job will be laid off tomorrow.

It really ticks me off that hard working people like us can't easily get help; yet people like this keep getting hand outs. Something is seriously wrong.

2009 video

Father, 29, in child support court says he has 21 kids

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- On paper, he has 20 possibly 21 children.

With a minimum wage job, he can't afford to support them all.

What is the state to do?

Desmond Hatchett, 29, told WVLT he wasn't out to set a record, though he certainly holds it in Knox County Juvenile Child Support Court.

Hatchett's children range in age from newborn 11.

There are at least 11 mothers; probably several more.

Constitutionally, there is nothing the state can do to limit him from having more.

"I had four kids in the same year. Twice." Desmond Hatchett told Volunteer TV.

On Friday, his name appeared on the docket 11 times; Representing about 15 of his 21 children.

"Can you keep up with it all?" WVLT asked Hatchett.
"Yeah," he said.
"You know all their names, and ages and birthdays?"
"Yeah."

Hatchett's name is pretty controversial at the old courthouse.

"The children can't be supported all by Desmond, so the state of Tennessee has had to step in," Hatchett's attorney Keith Pope said.

It's your tax dollars at work.

WVLT spoke with one mom who has two children with Hatchett.
She is supposed to get $67.50 a month. But many times, she gets a lot less than what she's owed.
They all do.

"It'll make it through half the month," the unidentified mom said.

She told Volunteer TV, Hatchett is the father of her two sons. And she says her 4-year-old is expensive enough on his own. "He's a heavy milk drinker. And milk is not cheap," she said.

"It's frustrating, but usually, when I ask he give it to me," she continued.

It's due process-- the state is only allowed to take 50% of Hatchett's paycheck.
That's 50% split multiple times.

"You look at when they filed, how many children they have-- he has several mothers that he has two children with. And, it's tough" Pope explained.

Still, Hatchett says the women knew what they were getting into.
They were all aware of his large family.

One said, she doesn't like it but she deals with it. "It's about the kids. Not the parents," she said.

Hatchett agrees he should do what's best for the kids.

"Do you intend to keep having children?" WVLT asked.
"No." Hatchett replied.
"You're done?"
"I'm done. I'll say I'm done."
"What made you say that?"
"I didn't intend to have this many. It just happened," Hatchett said.

Desmond Hatchett spent part of Friday afternoon jailed while a child support referee decided how to split up the $400 he brought to court.

If he doesn't pay what he owes, he will go back to jail because he is on an automatic jail order.

The mothers of Hatchett's children are supposed to get anywhere from $25 to $309 a month, but when his paycheck is garnished amongst them all, some women only get a $1.98 a month.

Here is a link that might be useful: Father, 29, in child support court says he has 21 kids

It boggles the mind, but I actually feel the women are harder to understand--only 11 moms, 30 kids--that means many of them are repeats and they knew what they were getting into.

As an able-bodied adult male, he is not eligible for gov't assistance. The children are, and their mothers, but there is a five-year lifetime limit on that no matter how many children they have.

As much as I think it's a shame that all of those children won't have much support (financial or otherwise) from dad, I don't begrudge them my tax dollars. They did not choose those parents, and going hungry won't make them any more likely not to repeat the cycle when they are grown.

This is not that uncommon, this or variants of it in one of the populations I see for treatmen: An elderly man with 16 children by 5 different women, the only ones he really supported were those of his legal wife. Two kids in the same class who are the same age and have the same name (born within a month or so of each other) because they have the same dad and different mothers. A mother who brings her 5 kids in, all close in age, four of whom have different last names. And "No, that's my one baby's mom, not my other baby's mom." as explained by a kid who was about 20. There are so few negative cultural implications for the fathers, and maybe not so many for the moms who have kids by various fathers.

And: two girls who have known each other for some time realizing they are half-sisters. The father is so unimportant and out of the picture it took them a long time to realize they had the same one.

And: from two half sisters I know: Halfsister #1: "Well our littlest Halfsister (dad #3), her last name is ____. Stepsister #2: "What? No it's not, it's____."
Halfsister #1 "It is?"

You can't fix stupid.

That one statement keeps coming back to me. So very true.

" I don't begrudge them my tax dollars. They did not choose those parents, and going hungry won't make them any more likely not to repeat the cycle when they are grown." Well-said, Leafy!

Along the same lines is the fact that I don't have children, but I don't begrudge paying taxes for schools. Investing in and caring for children is equivalent to investing in and caring for our future. It does not serve society to neglect children's health, education and welfare. (Not to mention that it's harsh, unkind and cruel to neglect needy children!)

I honestly don't begrudge the children either, they are victims in this mess, just like Octomom's children and all the children in the system. They deserve so much better than the cards they've been dealt.

What I do begrudge is the idea that there are so many adults who don't feel they should be held accountable for their choices; society is left holding the bag and that's without any repercussions to these irresponsible parents. Nothing is free in life and they should at least be required to help serve the public some how through community service as a pay back to the system they benefit from.

I also feel like with the economy the way it is, there are so many hard working families out there who need help due to circumstances beyond their control and don't qualify for it because they have made better choices. It seems as if our public resources only for those who are irresponsible. Roselvr and the situation she and her husband are experiencing is a perfect example of that.

Yes, Roselvr's situation is ridiculous--should not happen.

But the dad of 30 isn't getting any public resources, and I am sure the amount that all 30 of those children are getting in the form of food assistance to age 18 and 5 years per mother of cash assistance will not equal one hour of operations for either of the stupid wars we are involved in now, sacrificing the lives of other (mostly poor) young men and women for Haliburton profits.

We all are getting ripped off, every day, by having to pay taxes for things we don't support. The money the gov't throws at the problem is a drop in the bucket of the waste that goes on. Case in point: My husband is a researcher at a state university and if you pay taxes in my state you have paid for him to have weeks in Canada, Europe (three times) and South America this past year. He presents his research, which takes a couple of hours, and then has a week in Portugal or Amsterdam or London or wherever, on the University (taxpayer) dime. And he isn't at any of those conferences alone--there are thousands of scholars just like him.I'm all for the dissemination of research, but we all have to admit that it doesn't take a week in Vienna to tell people what you figured out.

I still think Mr. 30 Kids should be neutered--don't get me wrong. I just can't help but point out that many middle class folks benefit just as much from "gov't assistance"of one kind or another, yet don't attract the same fire. And hubby isn't finding a cure for cancer, he is researching what one guy said to another guy in 1860--the equivalent of researching how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.