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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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The idea here is that there are some things that are outside even a parent’s right to choose (eg blood infusion and Jehovah witness cases). It might be true that transitioning (ie eliminating sexual function) are so fundamental to a person that their parent cannot consent for them to eliminate such things.

Then that needs to be the argument made.

That usually is the argument made- that medical transitioning is a form of mutilation that can’t be consented to, so it nullifies the parent’s rights to make medical decisions for their kids. Parents rights are more of an argument about social transitions.

Then why are those states also trying to ban minors from social transitions with parental consent?

Because those decisions are seen as so intrinsically damaging to the child that the decision to proceed should not be allowed at all. We take the same approach (correctly, IMO) with respect to the question of whether the child should be permitted to have sex with adults. We can disagree at the object level (i.e. whether in fact social transitions are damaging to the child), but if one accepts those states' belief at the object level for the sake of argument, then there is nothing anomalous about their policymaking approach to the matter.

OK, so then my initial point that a parental rights argument is complete bullshit here is correct then?

Yes, it is bullshit. We are not in ancient Rome any more, parental rights have not been absolute for a long time.

Parents are, for example, not allowed to deny their children necessary health care.

Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children before they have reached the age of full and legal discretion when they can make that choice for themselves.

Court Says Ill Child's Interests Outweigh Religion

The debate is not about parental rights. If you make it about parental rights, you lose, because this cause - absolute power of parents over their children - was settled long ago.

The debate is about gender affirming health care.

Is it medically necessary lifesaving treatment, or not?

And if it is not necessary for children, is it necessary for adults?

I ask again then, what then is the discretion you would leave out of the state's hands? What are the choices that individuals and families are allowed to make?

We do not live in libertarian world where every adult is sovereign over his body, and will not in the foreseable future, and these decisions are political decisions.

Doctors will not replace your eye with glass one, your leg with wooden one and your hand with hook, not matter how how strongly you self identify as pirate, because pirate affirming health care is not recognized as legitimate medical procedure.

Why? Because transpiratical community is oppressed and persecuted, because transpiratism is not recognized as valid, because there is no respectable billionaire mafia family supporting transpirate rights. Sad.

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