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Post by Megan Mikesell on Nov 15, 2016 22:07:43 GMT
I wanted to get some opinions on what you all think of parental autonomy. Parental autonomy refers to the fundamental right to raise a child and make decisions for that child as the parent sees fit. This comes under scrutiny when the child's health or welfare is jeopardized by those decisions. Arguments can be made on what is considered discipline versus abuse. For example, some people consider spanking to be physical abuse, some were raised with spanking as discipline. Should parents be able to home-school their children without any qualifications or choose for their child not to go to school at all? Should parents be allowed to not give their children vaccines or does lack of herd immunity put the general public at too great of a risk for this to be their decision? In what cases should doctors and government be able to step in and how far should parental autonomy go in these circumstances?
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Post by ghannaba on Nov 23, 2016 18:06:15 GMT
Oh jeez.
This is a big can of worms. From my perspective, parental autonomy should exist to a point. The ethics and morals behind such decisions ultimately must fall between some form of consensus on what is considered 'right' versus 'wrong.' With spanking, I would venture to guess a consensus would never be reached by a randomized sample from the population. However, in cases of putting other children and others at risk for disease or in cases of potential harm, potentially parental autonomy becomes irrelevant as safety of the individual at risk takes primary precedence over parental autonomy. This topic becomes muddled and complicated quickly like the gentleman in the Rural Health class mentioned about cases of mistreatment such as psychological maltreatment. How do we define what is psychological maltreatment? How do we intervene? What is appropriate action or maybe allowed 2/2 parental autonomy? Do we take into consideration the mental health of a child coming from a situation of a parent constantly putting a kid down and talking with deprecating manner calling the child stupid, dumb, or whatever? I love the discussions because finding a line to draw in the sand is so tough many issues are gray areas.
TL:DR, Immunize your kids. If you don't, we will. - govt/physicians
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