I think that accurately captures the rule - and likely the right rule - with regard to decisions made for medical reasons, when the decisions are within the range of plausible medical decisions. (As I've said all along, I think circumcision decisions may well fall in this category.) But I don't think it disposes of a parent's decision made for nonmedical reasons, or if the decision (1) has substantial and possibly harmful permanent physical effects and (2) there comes to be a medical consensus that the decision is not medically justified.
An analogy: Say that parents want prescription-only psychotropic drugs administered to their child, and they make clear that the reason is not a medical judgment but purely a religious one. (The drug happens to be a sacrament to them, for instance.) It seems to me that Parham doesn't dispose of this situation. Eugene From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Friedman, Howard M. Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 9:35 AM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Relevance of Parham v JR To Circumcision Debate I think some guidance on relative rights of parents and children to make a decision that could arguably either harm the child or be in the child's best interest are found in the Supreme Court's 1979 decision in Parham v. J.R. on parental commitment of a minor to a state mental hospital. While there is language in Chief Justice Burger's opinion that may point more than one way in the circumcision example, I call your attention to these excerpts: "Simply because the decision of a parent is not agreeable to a child, or because it involves risks, does not automatically transfer the power to make that decision from the parents to some agency or officer of the state. The same characterizations can be made for a tonsillectomy, appendectomy, or other medical procedure. Most children, even in adolescence, simply are not able to make sound judgments concerning many decisions, including their need for medical care or treatment. Parents can and must make those judgments. Here, there is no finding by the District Court of even a single instance of bad faith by any parent of any member of appellees' class.... The fact that a child may balk at hospitalization or complain about a parental refusal to provide cosmetic surgery does not diminish the parents' authority to decide what is best for the child.... ... [W]e conclude that our precedents permit the parents to retain a substantial, if not the dominant, role in the decision, absent a finding of neglect or abuse, and that the traditional presumption that the parents act in the best interests of their child should apply. We also conclude, however, that the child's rights and the nature of the commitment decision are such that parents cannot always have absolute and unreviewable discretion to decide whether to have a child institutionalized. They, of course, retain plenary authority to seek such care for their children, subject to a physician's independent examination and medical judgment." Howard Friedman
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