Rights For the Mentally Handicapped

Con, raises an apparently obvious truth, for anyone who has a young child, the rage they would feel at seeing their child struck would be so immediate and obvious. To be quite frank, I have acted out of rage at seeing individuals I have cared for harmed - but, once emotion is left, once this situation is examined with reflection it is just as immediately obvious that not only is this action not right, it is also not just, and even more than that, it is irresponsible. Simply consider the following situation - the mentally handicapped individual is hit in the throat by accident, or after being knocked to the floor seriously hits his head, etc. It is not difficult to imagine that in a non-movie event, such a confrontation could result in the death of the mentally handicapped person. In this event the parent has just committed manslaughter[1] and now has devoid the child of his parenting for quite some time. As such a parent can not longer effectively be responsible for their child they, by definition, have acted irresponsible. However even in the more mundane approach where the handicapped individual is simply bruised, a little shaken up and not permanently hurt. What exactly has the parent demonstrated? They are not acting to protect the child as this is done by simply removing the child from the situation, nor are they acting according to the law which would be to report the crime which is one of battery[2], instead they have demonstrated to the child that they alone have the right, and possibly even the duty, to act as judge, jury and executioner, obviously not a sensible lesson for the child. Finally, to actually turn to the specific issue of the mentally handicapped, Con is apparently attacking the position where someone would excuse the mentally handicapped because they are not responsible. Now to fully consider this proposed paradigm let us imagine the situation where the child was assaulted by another child, would the parent then make the same claim? Of course not. It is obvious that the adult has committed an even worse act as they have committed battery on an individual which is far less capable than himself and even possibly incapable of realizing they have done harm. Now consider what does it mean to be mentally handicapped[3], it is so defined to mean : -Significantly subaverage intellectual functioning -Concurrent deficits or impairments in adaptive functioning in at least 2 areas -Onset before age 18 years Now it is obvious that for example an individual who has significant mental impairments which prevent employment, academic development etc., would not in any way make them less responsible. However there are those that are mentally handicapped to the extent that they have severe social and interpersonal skills, not capable of even being aware they are causing harm. On such individuals the parent is not only as noted in the above clearly breaking the law, acting without responsibility, they are actually causing harm to an individual who was not even aware they had caused harm and can not be expected to interpret the punch as an effect of their actions. Note this last clause is explicit in that such an individual is incapable of knowing it was punished, it could be incapable of knowing that it was struck in the face for hitting the child. In such a situation what is the purpose of the act? The act in this case is clearly nothing more than sadism, it is causing harm to another for no other reason than a desire to cause harm for personal benefit. Again, it can not be argued to be for protecting the child and in fact it could put the child in danger because the parent could in fact start a fight with the individual and their handler and even the surrounding public. In short, the proposed solution is in all cases, if the individual is mentally handicapped or not : -illegal -irresponsible -unjust and in the case of severe mental retardation where the individual is not capable of understanding they have caused harm or that they have received punishment, this is simply an act of sadism. [1] http://www.duhaime.org... [2] http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com... [3] http://emedicine.medscape.com...