No More Suffering

This is a Science Fiction story about a little boy named Dojo.

(Note: The prompt for this story came from Bryn Donovan’s 5,000 Writing Prompts. The prompt was Science Fiction prompt #1 on page 34. The government temporarily neuters every child until the child can prove that they will be a good parent.)
“No, no!” said Esmeralda. “Not my baby! Not my baby!”
The officers held her back while the others went over to the crib. Little Dojo was lying in his crib, not knowing or understanding. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to cry. Lying in perfect peace. Perfect dismissal. Perfect detraction.
The officers of the Extricant Obelisk Compartment (EOC) waved a wand over the child’s body as his mother struggled with their henchmen.
“No!” she said. “You cannot do this. My only child! My only child!”
“Ma’am,” said their leader, holding the wand. “Undesirables having children is a crime in the Adopolis. We are sure you know of this. It’s for your own good.”
“No!” said Esmerelda.
Five years later.
Esmerelda walked down the street, holding little Dojo’s hand. She had been agonizing for years over the pain of her child’s fall. It was almost worse than having a child born with cancer or AIDs. Worse than the pain of death. She had to look at that child and know that they had had their humanity taken away.
She had petitioned the government to make her son fertile again. No dice. “Undesirables” were undesirable for a reason.
As they approached the school, Esmerelda witnessed a young man standing across the street, trying to hide the fact that he was handing needles and vials of liquid to children.
“You see them?” said Esmerelda. “They are the ‘undesirables.’ They poison our communities with their filth and their cancer, but the government not only doesn’t restrict their procreation, but it also promotes it.”
Esmerelda then began to scream at the man.
“Get out of here! Leave our children alone from your ‘government utility!’”
When they arrived at the school, Esmerelda left Dojo in the classroom and went home.
“Be good, my child.”
A few minutes into class, the officers of the EOD entered the classroom. The teacher led them to little Dojo’s desk. The EOD leader waved a wand over the kid’s head.
“You had your chance to prove your worth, ‘undesirable.’”
“What’s an undesirable?”
“Luckily, in a few generations, we won’t have to even ask that question.”
When Esmerelda got the call at work, she was despondent. How could they have done this? What was the goal? She knew what the goal was, but she couldn’t believe it. Why did the government always side with the criminal at the expense of the law-abiding?
It was a question that answered itself. Pragmatically, criminals were just more lucrative. They could often be co-opted to work for free. They could take things and do things to people that the government take or do. And they had no scruples.
“Why did they wave the wand, Mommy?” said Dojo later that evening.
“No more suffering…”