After reading this post of Difster's, I was sickened by the degree of power that the Italian legal system gives parents over their children. I know his main point was about atheism and the morality of forced abortions, but the part that I cannot help but notice here is that this is a perfect example of how collectivism is almost invariably a wellspring of evil. Virtually every great, hard to fight evil has arisen from the group controlling the individual.
Parents should not enjoy any legal authority over medical decisions affecting their children except where reasonable, life-saving measures might have to be taken. It would be one thing to allow a parent to override their minor child's decision to not have an abortion in the case of a ectopic pregnancy or some other weird exception because the parent has to safeguard their child's life. However, there is no greater good that can ever come out of giving them final authority over every aspect of their child's body and health. It smacks too much of that vile institution, Pater Familias for my tastes.
Of course, as Amynda is quick to remind us, abortion is a moral good. Ideas do have consequences and the idea that abortion is good for society has the consequence that sometimes the ends justify the means in the heads of those who are less dedicated to freedom. Abortion is a moral good, it's a moral good that teenage girls not have children out of wedlock. It's not a stretch, if you use your head.
It's profoundly sad how men and women can "reason" themselves into such horrific positions. I take this as a reminder that the world truly isn't my friend, and that it does really hate the God who created it.
It should serve to remind you that so much of what we take for granted is based on Christianity. This sort of thing really is a partial rebirth of Pater Familias, a very pagan concept.
Parents should not enjoy any legal authority over medical decisions affecting their children except where reasonable, life-saving measures might have to be taken.
That's a tough call really. Parents do need to have some control over such things. The problem is that an unborn baby is a life and parents shouldn't have any more authority to take that life than the mother has. If parents don't have control over the medical decisions for a child then it's up to the state when there is conflict between the child and the parents.
I guess I should have qualified myself a little better there. It's one thing for a parent to force life-saving treatment or regular doctor's visits. It's quite another for them to force any sort of optional operation such as plastic surgery or an abortion.
Awful as that enforced abortion example is, I believe most parents want what is best for their children, and their decisions reflect that. Maybe I should read up on Pater familias some more...
It would be interesting if they could imagine the roles reversed and they weren't in the driver's seat.
That's why I like Difster's post. Unfortunately, it will probably go over their heads.
Do you think this could all be part of a power trip for them?
In some respects, yes. They probably think that their daughter is too stupid and backward to know what she is doing.
I don't know the details of the Italian case, and it sounds pretty unpleasant.
However, to play the Devil's Advocate, don't we empower parents to make all kinds of medical decisions on behalf of their children? For instance, I'd wager that the majority of children for whom braces are medically indicated would choose of their own free will to get them. The same is true for lots of other medications and procedures. Where should the dividing line be between self-determiniation and childhood?
I think any normal medical procedure is one thing. Abortions, however, are not medically necessary or beneficial to the female involved except in rare cases, none of which apply to this particular one. My original statement wasn't quite what I had intended, but I do think that with braces, for example, a young person in their teens should be able to turn that down. At that age, they are old enough that society could have a psychological case for holding them accountable.