The MTV reality-based hit 16 and Pregnant dealt with some very serious issues beyond the scope of teen parenthood this past week.

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MTV followed Jordan Cashmyer, a pregnant Maryland teenager who elected in last week's episode to leave her parents home after they kicked out her boyfriend, and father to her unborn child, Derek Taylor.

With nowhere to go, the couple began staying with an assortment of friends and acquaintances, trying to get by, though Taylor seemed uninterested in finding employment. While the MTV series has previously delta with difficult subject matter, from drugs to poverty to inept parenting, homelessness is new territory for the show, which has been on since 2009.

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Ultimately Cashmyer and Taylor moved to Texas, where Taylor's father was able to secure his son a job and a place to live. Before moving, however, Cashmyer gave birth to their daughter Genevieve Shae Taylor, who was born in March.  

Currently Cashmyer and Taylor are still dating. Since the airing of their 16 and Pregnant episode, they have moved back to Maryland to live with family.

The program managed to tie all of this up in one episode, but it does bring together ethical questions for MTV. The network is attempting to show real teenagers with real problems, but in this case that included standing by and watching a pregnant minor loose her home. Should the network have intervened? Offered charitable suggestions?

There is a cost to the portrayal of uncensored hardship.

Tags: 16 and Pregnant MTV