Peony, your post below had me wondering what besides the obvious bothered me so much.
In the comments below, Patty said:
I agree with all of you, although I admit that I was involved in a discussion elsewhere on this topic and it made me wonder about something. Is this child's cancer really highly treatable and curable as the other side paints it to be? And is one round of chemo usually enough to combat it?
In the articles I have read on this case, there was no mention of this, which I think would be the biggest deciding factor if I were a judge. But the decision seems to be based on a growing assumption we are starting to take as a given in our culture: Parents are idiots.
It takes no intelligence to get pregnant, so people who become parents aren't really qualified to do so.
Why? I don't know. Democrats claim the job of parenting is too big for two people and we need mandatory preschool. "It takes a village to raise a child" or something like that. In the Terri Schaivo case, any testimony of Terri's parents was dismissed because her cheating ex-husband knew how pro-death Terri was over her own family who raised her with their values. When I was in health class in high school, we were told repeatedly by teachers (who used to sleep with the students at a much greater proportion then any priests I know-seen it with my own eyes-scary, huh?) that if we ever needed anything, and were afraid of our parents, we could always talk to them. Our health books even said that if our parents thought masturbation was bad, they were superstitious and old fashioned and masturbation was healthy. (Ah, the beauty of Planned Parenthood-I had no idea what masturbation was until that point. Never heard the word, never grasped the concept). I remember my father having a fit when he read this in my health book and wrote the school, and got no reply of course. (They should have taken me the heck outta there).
One of the biggest disputes I see a lot among APers is the vaccination debate. We know many vaccinations, do, or used to contain mercury. We know that a few are derived from Human diploid cells (aborted fetal tissue). We know in countries that wait to vaccinate until a year old or two have virtually no cases of SIDS. We have seen outbreaks of Pertussis in almost fully vaccinated populations. We know there is a National Injury Compensation Program. Why is it necessary to vax a newborn baby against Hep B? I am not trying to make a case against vaccinating (although after rereading what I wrote, it certainly seems that way). I am not totally anti-vaccinating-we vaccinate.I am just a parent who wanted as many facts as I could obtain about what I am doing with my children. I don't understand why parents are not allowed to have any say in the drugs they expose their children to. When your children get shots, you get these little sheets that tell you some nasty side effects might be possible, but overall, by not vaccinating you are practically creating some sort of epidemic. But to me, if any of the previous questions I asked were true, parents should be able to have the option to strongly discern with all the facts available what they would like to be done with their children. Again, I did not mean to go on an "anti-vaxing" tirade. I just think that is one of the first places where our doctors or whoever the other people in our lives that have influence on what we do with our children sort of step in and take over for us.
Now we have pending legislation whether or not it should be illegal to take minors over state lines to obtain abortions for them without parental consent. Why is this even a question? Can't that be construed as kidnapping if abortion were not involved?
Note this page from the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center:
If you are under the age of 18, the law in Pennsylvania says that to have an abortion you need to either bring a parent with you to sign your consent forms of go through a process called Judicial Bypass. If you cannot or do not want to involve either parent, we can help you. A judicial bypass allows you to ask a judge to declare you mature enough to decide for yourself whether or not to have an abortion. Although that may would complicated or frightening, it is a fairly simple process and our staff will walk you through each step.(Link: Dawn Patrol)
And when something happens to your daughter, it was your fault for not being a brave parent to walk past the protesting "anti-choicers" and slot your grandchild for termination yourself.
I am so tired. Raising kids is hard enough. Trying to raise them decently in this culture is like swimming upstream. In essence, everything that you truly feel is right because you love and care for your children is subject to scrutiny if it is not part of common opinion. I keep thinking of poor Mr. and Mrs. Schindler in this regard. God help us.
I didn't even touch on homeschooling.
