The interests of parents tend to coincide with those of their children.
I think it is problematic when parents' rights are contrasted to
children's nurturing (or even more problematic - children's 'rights') as
in Holly Page's first message. While families may indeed be social units
(although becoming increasingly diverse in form), they should not be
units for political administration. It is the (adult) individual that
has the prior relationship with the state. The consequence of, or
perhaps the reasons for, dividing children's care from parental rights,
is to allow government to intervene in the family on behalf of the
child, at the expense of both the rights and the authority of the
parent.
Holly Page's second message modifies her position but makes it no less
dangerous in my opinion - my main question being, who determines what
constitutes 'responsible' behaviour. This view still suggests it is the
government that is given this role, and not parents. I think there is
plenty 'we' can do, in violation of norms or not, but I do not classify
'we' as government. 'We' are the citizens and it is up to us to guard
our rights against government encroachment. My hope is that individual
rights and freedoms are not sacrificed in the process of forging a
'third way'.
-- cheryl hudson------------------------------------------------------------- Posted to uk-policy, a service of Nexus. http://www.netnexus.org/ Hosting and email provided by new media consultants On-Line Publishing