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Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:18 am Post Subject: Compulsory health screening for Kiwi kids coming?
I find these ideas extremely dubious. On the surface they sound like a good idea, particularly if you look at those in extreme need and those in abusive situations, however, bearing in mind the old 'feature creep' concept, I imagine many parents would feel violated by this. Given some of the horrific examples in recent times of how children have been coaxed by well meaning welfare people into giving what have later been determined to be false statements about abuse, an interview process would be something every parent should be suspicious of. And who creates the standard for what is seen to be an indicator that the state should interfere?
The Children's Commissioner wants the Government to test every New Zealand child four times during childhood as part of a radical plan to keep tabs on child welfare.
As part of the proposal, outlined exclusively to The Press yesterday, commissioner Cindy Kiro said she wanted children assessed at milestones in their life as part of an intervention system aimed at preventing children from falling through the cracks.
...Wood said there would be few people who could argue that a universal child-assessment system would not help, but a multimillion-dollar price tag could see the plan fail...
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott said any attempt by the Government to gather information through interviews, particularly about issues such as abuse, would be abhorrent and an invasion of privacy.
"It's shades of Big Brother. It would be completely disgraceful for any sort of interview to take place about things like abuse when they would be potentially gathering information about a crime. It's an affront to a presumption of innocence," he said.
There are many potential concerns about this sort of scheme. Forced medication, and perhaps worse, the narrowing of diagnosis to include common conditions formerly considered to strike everyone at some point in their lives. An extract from the article at the above URL:
Quote:
According to the DSM-IV manual (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association), mild depression (cyclothymia), sadness, sorrow, grief & boredom and even anger (bereavement), shyness (avoidant personality disorder), forgetfulness (Amnesia), sleep problems, math problems, bedwetting, to name a few, are all categorized as "mental illnesses."
The thread started by bevgad entitled Selling Sickness also gives an indication of how dangerous compulsory screening schemes can potentially be - the worrying aspects, for me, are linked with the guidelines for diagnosis becoming much more generalised, as the Listener article bevgad refers to indicates.
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 140
Location: Auckland, NZ
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:28 am Post Subject: Proposal to Test Every Child in NZ
This article appeared on the Stuff website today...
Quote:
Proposal to Test Every Child in NZ
The Children's Commissioner wants the Government to test every New Zealand child four times during childhood as part of a radical plan to keep tabs on child welfare...
...The ambitious scheme has attracted widespread support from child-welfare experts, but civil libertarians say it has Big Brother overtones...
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 140
Location: Auckland, NZ
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:04 am Post Subject:
Hiya Mel,
You beat me to it! ;-)
To answer your question, NO! I don't think it is a good idea. There seems to be an approach to many aspects of government and regulation today that assumes that everyone is somehow 'up to no-good' and therefore need to be monitored. In fact, the circumstances that measures of this type are supposed to protect society from are extremely uncommon.
But of course, the protection of children is a justification that only the guilty would argue about!!
Your point about 'feature creep' is I think VERY relevant here.
I recall when I worked in the US that liquor licensing enforcement assumed that everyone is a law-breaker and it was up to the consumer to prove their innocence. For example, on one occasion, I ordered a beer at a bar adjoining the local cinema while waiting for a movie to begin. The legal drinking age in California is 20 years, and I was quite obviously older than that. And yet the proprietor was legally obliged to sight my identification (in this case, my passport) before serving me. I have had the same experience in other states.
My point is the importance of retaining the presumption of innocence and our right to conduct the business of our lives in freedom - until such point as we break society's laws - and not to be constantly checked and monitored by a busy-body state.
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:28 am Post Subject:
Colin wrote:
But of course, the protection of children is a justification that only the guilty would argue about!!
This is precisely the point Keith Locke made to us in relation to voting on legislation where civil liberties are the very heart of why you might not choose to vote in favour. If child protection issues are attached to something, you effectively have no power of protest, because you come off looking like you are defending people's rights to abuse or endanger children if you oppose the bill.
Naturally, there is no justification for the abuse or maltreatment of any child (or adult for that matter), but with the current climate of 'every adult as potential abuser/criminal/wrongdoer', I fear that this cannot fail to go horribly wrong for many innocent and well meaning parents...
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 266
Location: Christchurch
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:42 pm Post Subject:
scary stuff.
just because "scotland" has this, does not mean anything, other than another morsel of mounting evidence that the "queen's" commonwealth seems to be desiring hideous orwellian systems of "serf" control.
i find this idea totally repugnant, and do not see that any positives would result. yes, i agree mel, forced vaccinations, medications, psychological counseling to become better pets of the state. sure. these power hungry elitists don't want "kids to fall through the cracks".. they want a complete dossier on every human crawling on god's green.
Makes you think about RFID chips. Put something like this in place and it could lead onto human chipping with all the "advantages' of the data being kept with that individual through their checks during childhood.
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:44 pm Post Subject:
Well it's not every child in New Zealand, but someone's got to be first...
NZ Herald on the 9th February wrote:
Free health checks for 450 new students at school
The 450 new students at Christchurch high school Linwood College are to have rigorous health checks as part of a plan to stop health problems affecting their learning.
From next week, Year 8 and 9 students at the school will have their ears, eyes, throat and teeth checked. Their fitness and general physical and mental health(my emphasis) will also be tested, The Press reported today'...
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 266
Location: Christchurch
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:35 pm Post Subject:
Melody Anderson wrote:
Hopefully they won't be using the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association :?
hi melody,
:-) i was actually given that test as part of a job interview screening process for a global corporate branch office in oakland, calif. it was a four hour test (or something like that) and if i remember correctly, i was too "empathetic" for this particular firm . :shock:
