Governor Doyle recently signed a bill that establishes age 15 & 1/2 as the age at which a person residing in Wisconsin can make his or her decision to donate organs if they were to die. The age until now had been established at 18. This was included in Assembly Bill 570 that was co-sponsored by Rep. Jeskewitz and Rep. Wasserman, names familiar to our community.
I have close friends who have experienced the life-giving results of organ donors' decisions. They are passionately in favor of the program. I am not discussing the pro and con of organ donation. I am not raising questions about youthful donors; organs have been harvested and donated from infants and children for a long time.
I am raising the question of just when a person should be able to make that decision for oneself. I am raising the question of when the person has accumulated the knowledge and wisdom to make such a decision without parental consent. I am raising the question as to when parental consent and parental responsibility is removed from the family.
What are the things one can do legally at the age of 15 & 1/2 years? Drive? No. Drink alcohol? No. Vote in public elections? No. Join the military? No. Own a gun? No. Marry? No. Go to school? Yes.
Is it just me or does it seem to you, as well, that our society is gradually eroding the rights of parents and giving those rights over to the state? Are we truly moving to that "It Takes A Village" thing?
If we think back, there has been a subtle, slow, but inexorable movement in which the parent has lost rights that have been given over to the state (or the schools which is nearly the same). Vaccinations. Sex education. Corporal punishment. Driver's training. Abortion.
Am I way off the mark, or do you agree? Where is this going to end? Will it end tomorrow, or next year, or next generation or will it end when the parents have given over all their rights to those who know best? And, do the parents even know that they're losing parental rights? And, if they know, do they care?
Troubling incrementalism.
