On 6/1/2010 9:13 AM, John Francis wrote:
It's complicated.
In general, the rights of the "state" (or country, here) are subservient to
the rights of the individual. That includes the right of the presumed legal
guardian of the child (the parent, typically) to make decisions that may, in
some cases, be injurious to the well-being of the child. In particular it
is quite legal for a parent to decline medical treatment for a child where
such treatment would go against the religious beliefs of the parent.
There have been a few (very well publicised) cases where the state has tried
to intervene and force medical treatment on an incapacitated individual even
though the legal guardians of said individual were opposed to this action
(probably the most infamous case in recent memory in the USA being that of
Terry Schiavo, but there have been similar cases brought in other countries).
I see your point. Indeed this is very interesting and not simple. And I
readily admit that my Soviet background shows in my arguments.
Boris
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
