Another case where Vegan parents are charged in a case concerning their child. Is this fair?

Question

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/06/10/parents-of-girl-brought-up-on-vegan-diet-may-face-charges/

I am not a vegan but have lived this lifestyle at times and the way the law is comming into our homes is getting scary. There could be many reasons for this girls spinal malformation and they stop researching because her and her parents are vegan. I do not want any family to fall under persecution for their beliefs because it starts with this then gets worst!

Answer 1

I know parents of extremely healthy vegan twins. The kids are brilliantly smart, function well at school, do great at athletics and have no behaviour problems. Big Brother has no right to come into our homes and tell us what to feed our kids. And the above poster is also correct. If children's malnutrition is a crime then why aren't authorities stopping the increasing amount of childhood obesity? So am I to understand that it may be illegal to not feed your kids meat but it's perfectly fine to give them massive amounts of sugary sodas, fast food, candy, cookies etc.? This country has young children with diabetes and heart disease! Why aren't these kid's parents being arrested?

Answer 2

In the case of the parents letting their baby starve to death, 'veganism' was not the issue - moronic and neglectful parents were the problem. In this type of situation, I don't think it's fair or right for the parents to be legally persecuted, unless it was shown that they knew their child was deficient, or ignored an obvious medical problem.

Where do we draw the line on what parents can be charged for? If we can charge vegan parents for their child being deficient in Vitamin D (which is actually a steroid hormone), then why shouldn't all nutritionally inept parents be charged? Just as a child who is deficient in Vit. D may develop rickets, and later in life, bone disease, a child who is fed a diet of pure refined sugar and saturated and trans fats, plus hormones and antibiotics in dairy and meat, will likely become overweight/obese, and suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and once older, they will have heart disease and will likely be obese. This is a life sentence for people who do not change their diet. So shouldn't those parents be charged as well?

The answer is no. Unless we want to live under fascist rule. Parents need to be educated and use proper judgment, and healthful food needs to be more affordable than unhealthy food! In most cases, parents do not have malicious intentions when they feed their children... they're just doing what they can to get by... doing what they think is best. Unless parents show gross negligence, the issue of charging them for this type of thing opens a much bigger can of worms. If we start charging all the parents who aren't feeding their kids properly, we're going to need a lot of foster homes.

Answer 3

If the parents of a vegan child can be charged for neglect in the poor diet of their daughter, then the parents of THESE children (http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Fast... should also be charged for harming their children.  There are also plenty of vegan foods fortified with vitamin D.

The problem with relying on the sun for vitamin D is when one is in northern latitudes or has darker skin; it can be harder to absorb the sunlight one needs to manufacture sufficient vitamin D.

Answer 4

yes, it's fair. children can be raised to be healthy adults on a vegan or vegetarian diet, but parents need to inform themselves on the proper nutrition for their child. these parents neglected to provide their child with the proper vitamins. this is their fault, not the vegan diet. they are giving other vegan families a bad name.

Answer 5

Well, it's certainly no worse than parents feeding their children excessive amounts of junk food and causing them to be obese.

Answer 6

It's not fair to blame it on the parents, period, when their child is born with an unforseen deformity or if they get sick somehow. And if the child is sick BECAUSE of neglect, we still don't blame it on the fact they are vegetarian but rather on the fact they are neglectful, period. Neglectful parents come in all shapes and sizes, they eat all diets, their skins are all colors, they are all religions. This is just prejudiced thinking on display to insinuate that veganism caused it.

Besides, vitamin D3 is synthesized in the human skin from sunlight - how many of us slap on sunscreen on our kids religiously? How many of our kids play video games in front of a television for hours a day rather than run around in the sunlight? All of our kids are prone to vitamin D deficiency, not just vegan children. If that child went outdoors and actually experienced the world a little this would have never happened.

We don't blame mothers that are over 35 who get pregnant and who end up with kids with Down's Syndrome (the odds are scary past age 35 that the kid will be like that).

We don't blame mothers who eat non-veg diets that bear children with spina bifida. In fact, folic acid (which helps prevent spina bifida) is most prevalent in plant foods and most breads and pastas are enriched with it, and vegans are more likely to eat folic acid rich whole grains than non-vegans.

We don't blame a black mother for having a baby with Sicle Cell Anemia, or a Meditteranean mother or north African mother. True that their genetics make it more likely that their baby will have this disorder, but it's not the mother's fault.

Unless parents are purposely underfeeding their child or neglecting it, or purposely eating a bare-bones and unhealthy diet in their pregnancy, you can't blame them just for being vegan. That's ridiculous. Some of the healthiest, soundest parents I know are vegetarians and vegans.

Someone that eats meat can starve their baby to death or abuse it or have a baby born with diseases and malformations too. In fact, statistically, most of the time, OVERWHELMINGLY in fact, you hear about meat-eating parents that ALSO HAPPEN TO BE child abusers or neglectful parents. But the media doesn't spin it as being because of meat, or come up with pesudo-scientific nonsense like they are abusive to their kids because meat made them aggressive. So why do that to vegetarians?

I pity people who are so prejudiced and ignorant that they'll look at an abusive, neglectful parent and say it's because of vegetarianism rather than the fact the parent is sick inside. It's the same kind of flawed thinking that blames the rape victim rather than the rapist, for instance. These people put the blame where it does not belong because it's convenient to them and their beliefs. Heaven forbid they actually concede on something or let go of yet another opportunity to bash vegetarians for no reason whatsoever.

Answer 7

She had rickets which can be prevented by vitamin D.  The sun is the best source.

Answer 8

I don't place the blame on the diet but on the parents.  I have  friends and at least one relative who are vegans and their children are healthy.