Setting standards for parenting - By what right?

Child Psychiatry and Human Development

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 165-177

  Dwyer, James G ^a  

^a CHICAGO KENT COLLEGE OF LAW   (United States)

Author keywords

Child Advocacy; Children's Rights; Parenting Standards; Parents' Rights

Indexed keywords

CHILD PARENT RELATION; CHILD WELFARE; HEALTH CARE POLICY; PRACTICE GUIDELINE; REARING; REVIEW;

ADOLESCENT; CHILD; CHILD ADVOCACY; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; HUMANS; JURISPRUDENCE; PARENTING;

EID: 0031043826     PISSN: 0009398X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/BF02353696     Document Type: Review

References (4)

1. For a more extended treatment of this topic, see Dwyer JG: Parents' Religion and Children's Welfare: Debunking the Doctrine of Parents' Rights. California Law Review 82:1371-1447, 1994.
2. 'Right' and 'privilege' are terms of art in legal theory. A right is a claim upon others, requiring them to do or to refrain from certain actions. It entails a legal duty on the part of others, owed to the right-holder. A privilege is merely the absence of a duty not to do something - that is, being free to do something if one wants. It does not entail any claims against other persons. For example, if I lend my shovel to my neighbor, he enjoys a privilege of using the shovel, but no claim against me should I take the shovel back or impose restrictions on how he may use it. In addition to this legal distinction, there is a moral distinction between a right and a privilege, in that the former entails a sense of entitlement and deservingness that the latter does not.
3. It is important not to confuse this point with a radical child-liberation position. To say that only children should have rights in connection with their upbringing is not to say what the content of those rights should be. What particular rights children should have depends on where in fact their fundamental interests lie. If it is the case, as most believe, that it is not in children's interests to be liberated from all restrictions and parental governance, then it would be senseless to attribute to them a right to such liberation.
4. Dwyer JG: The Children We Abandon: Religious Exemptions to Child Welfare and Education Laws as Denials of Equal Protection to Children of Religious Objectors. North Carolina Law Review 74:1321-1478, 1996.