Hi, Jack!!!
I don't really know the answers to the points you raise about taking children away from their parents. I believe it should be against the law to even hit a child, because I think this teaches violence as a way of solving problems. But I acknowledge that is very idealistic!! I certainly wouldn't even begin to advocate taking children away from their parents unless there was a documented history of abuse that caused bodily injury.
Personally, I think after the first time this happened, there should be a massive intervention with individual and family therapy, and violence aversion group therapy for the offender. I would give abusive parents one very good chance to change their behavior, but that is all. The basic human rights of a child not to be hurt by caregivers to me overwhelm parental rights. I know all this intervention sounds expensive, but the societal cost of damaged children is horrendous already. I think prevention would be a lot less expensive.
Neglectful parents are a slightly different matter. I don't personally have much sympathy for parents who are too screwed up to take care of their children, abandon them, and then want them back. But for it to be fair that parents lose their children after abandoning them, it seems to me that effective alcohol and drug addiction treatment, and general psychological counseling, should be readily available on demand, so that people who are planning to become parents, or find themselves in crisis pregnancies, can take responsibility for the reality they have created and do something positive to overcome their own deficiencies before they have affected another generation.
Again, children are tiny and impressionable for only a short time, and unattached children grow up to be stunted and often very scary adults. There are no really good solutions here, but I think our laws take parental rights much more seriously than they do children's rights, and that maybe the balance should tilt the other way.
I think one of the most disturbing questions facing America is whether parents should lose their children simply for not being able to feed them. This issue is coming up rapidly, now that we have removed part of the safety net.
I wish Penni would pop in and contribute to this discussion. She and I both feel strongly that children need to be removed from destructive and damaging homes more quickly, and I would be interested to hear her concrete suggestions on the issue. |
