This week in the Christian Views Symposium, Lennie asks about the Katie Wernecke situation that I mentioned last week. I think my views on the situation are already pretty darn clear, much to the chagrin of a few of my gentle readers, but Lennie asks more:

Is this a violation of parental rights?

Where do parental rights begin and end when it comes to medical treatment?

Is it a violation of parental rights? Very clearly and obviously. I am absolutely dumbfounded when people comment here that it is not. The parents wanted a different opinion from another doctor – nothing more. Her mom went to jail for it.

This situation says that if you dare to question a doctor about any treatment for your child, you go to jail. I already worry about taking children to doctors – and doctors "reporting" to social services and the like. Now I’m being told that if I dare question a doctor’s medical opinion about a child, I get to go to jail. How can anyone outside a total communist state even begin to suggest that this is OK?

Where do parental rights begin and end? I have a better question – when did the state obtain the right to take my children and treat them against my will, against their will, and at my (and others') expense?

The state has almost no rights regarding medical care when the parents are present and in a sane mind. If they want to refuse blood transfusions, who is the state to demand it? The only cases where the state should step in is where they always have the right to – when someone is in imminent danger of immediate harm or death. And even then, the state should only step in long enough to mediate the harm and then they should get the hell out of the way.

Posted by: Ogre at 02:36 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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