The key issues for the 2024 elections are already starting to take shape, with one of the key issues that the two sides are opposed to being parental rights. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s tweet made this difference all the more obvious as he mocked the idea that parents should be in charge of making major decisions about the way their children should be educated.
The California Democrat has said that this is like “putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials?” Swalwell also noted that he must be missing something and that this whole argument is “so stupid.”
However, as many would say what he is missing is informed consent.
In medicine, Americans have always been allowed to consent. While the doctors might be able to perform the surgeries as they deem best, they have at first secured the patient’s consent on being allowed to operate. However, due to the requirement of consent, doctors must gain consent for the specific surgical operation they have deemed necessary. If suddenly they begin operating on a different body part, then they lose their right and it is considered battery, as seen in Mohr v. Williams (Minn. 1905).
California specifically has a strong patient-based consent stronghold because of the California Supreme Court stating in Cobbs v. Grant (1972), that the physician’s discretion does not tramp over the patient’s right to informed decisions. While the patient is not in charge of the operation, the doctor must explain the procedure thoroughly in order to gain consent. This is what parents are also asking from school boards.
They are asking to have a look into what subjects and books their children will be taught while in school.
