Do adoptive parents have the right to use corporal punishment on their adopted children? Is a council right to resist the adoption of a child by parents because of their attitude to corporal punishment? This seems to be the crux of a case that has just gone throught the High Court. The court decided that Newham Council was unreasonable in deciding the adoptive parents were unsuitable and ordered a review of their case.
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Irrespective of the moral arguments it is not actually illegal for a birth parent to use physical punishment on their child. As an adopter becomes the legal parent of a child upon adoption it is therefore not illegal for an adoptive parent to use physcial punishment on their child.
However an assessment will want to ensure that a child is not physically abused by their adoptive parents and threatening to use a belt, even if not actually carrying out that threat, will have raised considerable concerns, particularly as most children placed for adoption will have had some kind of negative experience that led to this position. If a parent is unable to discipline their child without threats of this kind then are they able to provide the necessary discipline and boundaries a child needs. Making threats and not carrying them out is detrimental to achieving good discipline as the child learns only that it doesn't matter what they do, the parents don't carry their threats out.
I'm dubious about most things I read in the newspapers, but extremely dubious when the story's related to social workers - besides it quite unusual for a local authority to oppose placing sibblings together, so there has to be much more to this case - then is being reported.
Adoptive parents have the same parental rights as birth-parents, so why should their status be an issue. The law states that those with parental responsibility have a duty to discipline a child using 'reasonable chastisement' - so the law supports them. However, we know that some parents struggle with the definition of 'reasonable chastisement' Hence, parents are duty bound to protect their children from harm, injury, abuse etc! I'm sure in most cases of corporal punnishment - common sense applies.
The fact is, research suggests corporal punishment has more negative than positive affects - I'm guessing that this only applies when smacking is not used as a last resort and indeed, becomes abusive.