Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer story about Diane Goslin is a good summary of, or introduction to, Pennsylavnia's home birth problems. Such struggles are not limited to Pennsylvania, but are a good example, like the recent California homeschooling crisis, of how rights and practices that we have relied on for years—centuries!—in our country can be stripped away in an instant if not specifically written into our laws. I don't blame midwives, like the one who assisted with the deliveries of Noah and Jonathan, for fearing that legislation will bring more restrictions rather than fewer. That's what homeschoolers feared 30 years ago, when the modern home education movement was going through its own birth pangs; in some ways they were right, but when society's attention makes it no longer possible to stay under the radar, the protection of the law becomes necessary.
The concern of the U.S. Supreme Court for the religious freedom of the Amish (Wisconsin v. Yoder) was a significant force in the eventual acknowledgement of the rights and responsibilities of all families in the matter of their children's education, though as California has proved, we must be ever vigilant. The wisdom of the serpent is a complement, not a contradiction, to the harmlessness of the dove. May the Amish also succeed in establishing recognition of the parents' rights and responsiblities when it comes to the birthing of those children!Excerpt: I don't enjoy reporting bad news, really. It makes me sound old and curmudgeonly. Okay, so I am old and curmudgeonly, but that's beside the point. So today I feature an exciting story from the Philadelphia Inquirer: Midwife Dian...
Weblog: Lift Up Your Hearts!
Date: June 14, 2008, 3:27 pm
