Child Abuse Case Law
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Child abuse has engendered a set of case law that is intended to protect children from both abuse and neglect by their parents. These laws sometimes interfere with another legally protected activity, the free exercise of religion. Several legal cases in recent years have tested the limits of religious expression with reference to children, notably cases in which parents who do not believe in medicine have prevented their children from receiving medical treatment for religious reasons. The issue has become enmeshed with what might be called the larger parental rights movement which holds that all decisions regarding the welfare of children should be made by parents and not by government or the courts. What has developed in these cases is a conflict between the desire on the part of society to assert children's rights and to protect children and the belief that religious liberty is not to be infringed upon by government. In the clash between the need to protect children and the need to protect and encourage religious expression, the needs of children should prevail. The issue is raised perhaps most often with reference to the beliefs of members of the Christian Science Church. Caroline Fraser says that what most people know about this church is that its members do not believe in medical science, or what they call "materia medica": They generally do not accept medical care for themselves, and many do not permit it for their children. They believe they can heal through
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etts then adopted a law making child neglect and abuse a felony while repealing the section of the law exempting parents from prosecution for religiously motivated medical neglect of their children. The law was hailed as an important victory for the American Academy of Pediatrics and its continuing effort to protect children from child abuse and neglect. The academy issued a policy statement in 1988 calling on all states to eliminate religious exemptions from their child abuse and neglect laws. The American Medical Association's House of Delegates reaffirmed its policy supporting the repeal of religious exemptions in 1990. While some might see such a repeal as common sense, others see such a repeal as a challenge to religious liberty or to parental rights. It took five years of effort to get the law changed in Massachusetts. The change in the law in Massachusetts was seen as a major victory for those desirous of such a change because Boston is the home of the Christian Science Church. Arthur Kohrman is a doctor and the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Bioethics says that the change in the law in Massachusetts is not a sign that the legislative tide has turned:
Efforts to repeal Michigan's religiou
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1600
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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