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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 24 Nov 1999 09:50:16 EST
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I feel an urge to step in here to put some brakes on Heather's statement that
how you feed your kid is "a matter of good old fashioned civil liberties."

It's one thing to assert that the science is still equivocal on HIV's
relation to bf, and so the state should not be ready to take a firm position
where researchers cannot fairly do so.   I'm not in a position to evaluate
any of the research myself, but in so far as this statement is true about the
science, it should be true about the government, yes.

However, in so far as there IS or MAY AT SOME POINT BE a pretty clear
research-based answer to that question, then "good old fashioned civil
liberties," at least in their US version, don't give parents the right to
flout it.

I think it's pretty well established law in most jurisdictions in the US that
you are not allowed to endanger your child, even if you "just don't agree"
with the research or with the principles (even religious ones) on which it is
based.    Christian scientists who wish to decline transfusions for their
kids are the best known case, but there are others.   The government --
meaning, in a democracy, you and me -- is both entitled and obligated to
protect children from dangerous decisions by potentially negligent
caregivers, and society, for better or worse, gets to decide what that means.

So the ONLY reason I "would go to the wall" for the mother's right to choose
is that I don't think it is clear what the right answer is -- in a given
case, certainly, where variable risk of mastitis etc on the one hand and
water quality etc on the other all need to be factored in; much less in the
population overall.

Elisheva Urbas
NYC

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