Necessary Intervention
On the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 yesterday, there was a discussion about a couple in Dundee who have 8 children with two being taken into care. The background is that the two taken away are obese which the local social services is classifying as abuse.
Now, as you are well aware, I am not an advocate of state interference, however, there are cases where the harm caused to society is such that the state has to step in for the greater good of society. In this case we have two parents who do not work and are on benefits. Clearly they are not looking after their children properly and so the state has a duty to step in. They don’t have a right to step in, but they have a duty because of the potential harm to society at large that obese children will have.
It was a good discussion with arguments made from both perspectives. I won’t repeat my arguments, instead below is the email I sent to the programme setting out my position on the case:
In principle, individuals should be left to run their own lives as they see fit as it is the individual who is knows themselves best and is therefore best placed to know how to run their lives. The state on the other hand does not know the individual and is therefore not best placed in general to run that person’s life.
Where the state should step in is if the actions of the individual are such that a harm is caused to society.
In this case, we seem to have a family who doesn’t work and are living off the state. Clearly, given the size of the children the parents are incapable of bringing up their children properly. This is causing a harm to society because if children are brought up unhealthily, they are more likely to develop health problems later and thus need more services such as the NHS.
I do not like the amount of control that the state is having on our lives, but in this case it seems the state is acting in a reasonable manner.
The question to answer is if they are living off benefits why on earth have they got so many children? Yes, many people want children but it is no good having children and not bring them up properly because you don’t have enough money to do so. That is unfair on the children and they would be better off not being created in the first place.
Congratulations to the social services in question.
My position on this case is clear, however it is important that every case is taken on a case by case basis so that the individual circumstances are looked into properly.
We need to be careful to not take children away when unnecessary, but we also need to make sure that children are protected from harm for the good of themselves and society.
