GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Belgian doctors target vegan parents as abusive

domingo, 19 de mayo de 2019

BioEdge: Belgian doctors target vegan parents as abusive

BioEdge: Belgian doctors target vegan parents as abusive

Bioedge

Belgian doctors target vegan parents as abusive

by Michael Cook | 19 May 2019 |

Although media attention has focused on parents who encourage their transgender children to transition to the opposite sex, other parents are coming under attack. In Belgium, the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium (l’Académie Royale de Médecine de Belgique) has called for parents who raise their children as vegans to be prosecuted. An estimated 3% of Belgian children are vegan and eat no animal products, including dairy and eggs.

“We must explain to the parents before compelling them,” said Professor Georges Casimir, who led the commission that wrote the report, “but we can no longer tolerate this endangerment.”

"This restrictive regime requires ongoing monitoring of children to avoid deficiencies and often irreversible growth delays," the legal opinion said, "It is unsuitable for unborn children, children, teenagers and pregnant and lactating women. It is not medically recommended and even forbidden to subject a child, especially during periods of rapid growth, to a potentially destabilising diet, requiring frequent supplementation and control.”

“This concept of nutrition is similar to a form of treatment that it is not ethical to impose on children.”

This opinion was given at the request of Bernard Devos, Belgium’s child ombudsman. He was alarmed by difficult situations -- including deaths -- that seem to be increasing in hospitals, crèches and schools. He recommends that children should be removed from the care of parents who persist in this “treatment”, which he described as abuse.

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge

Being just a bleachers bioethicist, I don't have anything original to contribute to the debates. I just watch from the sidelines. However, one thing that does strike me is the number of situations in which the received wisdom leads to contradictory or paradoxical conclusions.

For instance, some doctors argue that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is wrong because it gives athletes an unfair advantage over "natural" athletes. But South African Olympic champion Caster Semenya has been ordered to take performance-reducing drugs because her natural endowment makes her too fast.

As you can read below, an Ontario appeals court says that doctors who refuse to refer for voluntary euthanasia (killing their patients) should be drummed out of medicine. In the UK, meanwhile, a tattooist has been jailed for 40 months for voluntary tongue-splitting.

And last week a judge in the UK gave his blessing to an unnamed couple who are allowing their 4-year-old son to socially transition to a girl. Four years old seems a bit young to make up one's mind about gender. On the other hand, the Belgian medical association has demanded that parents who give their 4-year-olds a vegan diet be prosecuted.

It's all a bit bewildering.