Towards a New Lens of Analysis: The History and Future of Religious Exemptions to Child Neglect Statutes

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorEngle, G.
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-30T16:53:09Z
dc.date.available2015-01-30T16:53:09Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.description.abstractThe crucial distinction to be drawn while analyzing parental rights is between lifestyle and life. Parents, churches, schools, and the community have an important role in shaping a child’s lifestyle. It is precisely these influences that determine why one child plays baseball while another plays the trombone, or why one goes to a synagogue while another goes to a cathedral. These influences also determine, to a large part, whether a child goes to college or ends up in jail. But nowhere are these social and familial forces given the ability to determine whether a child has a life or not. This line is crucial. It is fundamental. And it must be protected, even at the risk of offending a parent’s religious choices. Though they may also violate the Establishment Clause, religious exemptions to child neglect statutes are an unconstitutional violation of children’s right to equal protection under the law. Challenging them as such is a potentially more effective and pragmatic endeavor than an attack grounded in the First Amendment. A long line of cases has established that parents may not use religion as an excuse for neglect; the state, meanwhile, may not use the type of family a child was born into as grounds for different treatment. By removing these exemptions, children are protected while being respected as full people under the Constitution. Children are dying needlessly every year, and it is time to re-frame the debate, look through the lens of Equal Protection, and do what is right. (Author Text)en_US
dc.identifier.citationEngle, G. (2010). Towards a New Lens of Analysis: The History and Future of Religious Exemptions to Child Neglect Statutes. Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest, 14, 375-399.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=law-student-publications
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/2142
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherRichmond Journal of Law and the Public Interesten_US
dc.subjectchild abuseen_US
dc.subjectneglecten_US
dc.subjectreligionen_US
dc.subjectlawen_US
dc.subjectmedical neglecten_US
dc.subjectrefusal of medical careen_US
dc.subjectlawen_US
dc.subjectreviewen_US
dc.titleTowards a New Lens of Analysis: The History and Future of Religious Exemptions to Child Neglect Statutesen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

Files

Collections

CALiO Collection of Resources