Setting standards for parenting--by what right?
Mental health professionals, like other professionals involved in family matters, feel constrained when advocating for the interests of children by the belief that parents are entitled to custody and control of their children's lives, regardless of what others may think of their parenting behavior, absent severe harm to the children. This belief is morally untenable, and the legal doctrine of parental rights that is its concrete embodiment is consistent with other well-established legal principles and should be abandoned. Children alone should have legal rights in connection with their upbringing, and those rights should include an entitlement to much higher standards of parenting than the law presently imposes.
Dwyer
J G
JG
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois 60661, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002651:Child Advocacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D016487:Parenting