One of the big cultural differences between the US and most of Europe is the nature of the legal relationship between parents and children. Broadly, US law and public debate tends to treat children as a form of property, owned by parents who have a very broad discretion to make choices about their health, education and social life. On this side of the Atlantic, family law tends to treat parents as stewards or trustees for their children. Like any other trustee, they are supposed to set aside their personal beliefs and preferences to act in the specific interest of their child. This gives rise to a more expansive notion of children’s rights, of the duties of parents to respect these, and of the role of the state in supervising parental behaviour…
…Liberal democracies always have to strike a balance between accepting a degree of diversity in family life and the protection of less powerful members, particularly children who lack access to the public sphere to enlist defenders. It is, however, worth asking whether US children are well-served by an obsession with exclusive parental rights to control choices like vaccination given the foreseeable risk to their lives, health and well-being.