Re: They will themselves...

Do you guys remember the case of the 10yo girl who was having an affair with an adult friend, and got pregnant, and intended both to keep the baby and live with the lucky guy?

It was Mom who forced her to abort, have the guy locked and child sent to shrinks.

It was state that performed the abortion, the locking and the therapy.

Most parents and parental power advocates had no problem with the above. But if the state instead honored the choices of the girl to have the baby and move in with her adult lover, you would see parental power advocates crying a river over such a "totalitarian" act by the state. They only want the state out of their lives when it isn't serving their personal wishes; if the state instead enforced the wishes of the girl to control her own life, then you would suddenly see these same parents bitching about how awful and intrusive the state is.

The rights of adult population are 99% of the time defended by the adults themselves under the very current system. I see no reason why this has to be different in the case of youth. If you do, then it sounds like you don't really think youth are all that capable.

I believe youths are no less capable than adults in protecting their own rights, but I believe adults need to have their rights protected by the state at times, and hence so would younger people. The state needed to step in and protect the newly freed slaves of the South right after the war ended for obvious reasons; the former slaves were in a heavily disadvantaged position for several years. If the state truly was pushed out of existence--either under the present society or in a future society--parental authority and power would almost certainly go out the door. So it baffles me when parental power advocates attack the state, because in the great majority of cases under the present laws the state is their best friend and staunch ally.