Setting Standards for Parenting - By What Right?

Mental health professionals, like other professionals involved in familymatters, feel constrained when advocating for the interests of children by the beliefthat parents are entitled to custody and control of their children\u27s lives, regardless ofwhat others may think of their parenting behavior, absent severe harm to the children.This belief is morally untenable, and the legal doctrine of parental rights that is itsconcrete embodiment is inconsistent with other well-established legal principles andshould be abandoned. Children alone should have legal rights in connection with theirupbringing, and those rights should include an entitlement to much higher standardsof parenting than the law presently imposes

Equality Between Adults and Children: Its Meaning, Implications, and Opposition

Family law scholars have devoted much attention to equality among groups of adults and some attention to equality between groups of children. There has been little exploration, however, of the notion of equality between adults and children. In this Article, I first explain what it means at a basic, theoretical level to speak of such equality. I then identify some practical implications. Finally, I consider why there is great resistance to many practical implications of children\u27s equality, even among those who would consider themselves advocates for child welfare