Parents who don’t love their children should not be criminalised
By Max Wind-Cowie Under the terms of the proposed ‘Cinderella law’ parents could face up to ten years in prison for ‘emotional neglect’. You can’t legislate for love. Sad though it may be, frustrating …More
By Max Wind-Cowie
Under the terms of the proposed ‘Cinderella law’ parents could face up to ten years in prison for ‘emotional neglect’.
You can’t legislate for love. Sad though it may be, frustrating as it often is, whether or not we love one another isn’t something that can be written into law. It is ironic that our society – which allows for quickie divorces and which just this weekend conducted gay weddings for the first time – should be so blind to this simple fact. We subscribe to a dogma of ‘what the heart wants’ when it comes to the coupling and, to borrow a phrase, ‘conscious uncoupling’ that we see about us. And yet, when it comes to people’s relationships with their children, we’re unable to follow our own logic. Instead we try to regulate for feelings.
So it is that our Government, in what it clearly considers its infinite wisdom, wants to enact a ‘Cinderella law’. Under the terms of the proposed legislation parents could face up to ten years in prison for ‘emotional neglect …More
Under the terms of the proposed ‘Cinderella law’ parents could face up to ten years in prison for ‘emotional neglect’.
You can’t legislate for love. Sad though it may be, frustrating as it often is, whether or not we love one another isn’t something that can be written into law. It is ironic that our society – which allows for quickie divorces and which just this weekend conducted gay weddings for the first time – should be so blind to this simple fact. We subscribe to a dogma of ‘what the heart wants’ when it comes to the coupling and, to borrow a phrase, ‘conscious uncoupling’ that we see about us. And yet, when it comes to people’s relationships with their children, we’re unable to follow our own logic. Instead we try to regulate for feelings.
So it is that our Government, in what it clearly considers its infinite wisdom, wants to enact a ‘Cinderella law’. Under the terms of the proposed legislation parents could face up to ten years in prison for ‘emotional neglect …More
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Prof. Leonard Wessell
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"Emotional neglect" is relative. Some instance must give it precisely defined and recognizable meaning or reserve vor itself or its "experts" must be given the right to detering what "neglect" is. This gives to the instanc, i.e., to the goverment officials enormous power. Let us say that a child feels unease amongst aggressive homosexuals or overzealous educators of sex in schools. The school could …More
"Emotional neglect" is relative. Some instance must give it precisely defined and recognizable meaning or reserve vor itself or its "experts" must be given the right to detering what "neglect" is. This gives to the instanc, i.e., to the goverment officials enormous power. Let us say that a child feels unease amongst aggressive homosexuals or overzealous educators of sex in schools. The school could report this "uncomfortable" feeling by the child as evidence of being damaged re acceptance and affirmation of all sexuality. Ergo, the state removes the child or punishes the parents. The potentiality for totalitarian intervention into family life is enormous. Of particular difficulty would be a one parent, i.e., mother, family where the parent must work and must of necessity not spend an ideal "non-neglecting" time with the child. One can use one's imagination. The possiblities of making the state (i.e., actually those who are in power) totally responsible for the child. It freightens me.
