[Pablo64]

I almost agree with you, but here is the problem: where does it end? What about the rotten parents out there who feed their kids nothing but crap and they weigh 300 lbs. at 12 years old? Do you really want the government stepping in and mandating what you can and can not feed your children? This is the proverbial camel trying to get his nose under the tent flap. Before long, the whole damn camel is in the tent.

I think that many people who don't smoke (or who were subjected to it as children as you were) have a very strong (and perhaps justified) reaction to this particular issue, but how about we correct it ourselves rather than having the Nanny State step in? Besides, there is no guarantee anywhere that says that you have the right to perfect parents. Face it, not all parents are going live up to our expectations, but we love them anyway and we deal with it and we try to do better (as we see it) for our children.

[ichabod1]

What about the rotten parents out there who feed their kids nothing but crap and they weigh 300 lbs. at 12 years old?

What's worse is when the parents are NOT feeding the child nothing but crap, and he is 300 lbs because of a hormonal imbalance or other medical condition that is not understood by the medical authorities. And it's even worse than that when the state takes the kids and/or locks the parents up for child abuse.

[NCLaw441]

You posted: I almost agree with you, but here is the problem: where does it end?
***
I am not sure where I come down on a law regarding smoking parents in closed vehicles with their children, but government is called upon to draw lines all the time. It is just a question of where to draw those lines. I don’t think anyone objects to a law prohibiting subjecting children to pornography in the home, or beating children with electric cords in the home. And almost everyone, on this thread at least, would say that government should not prohibit religious education of children in the home. The question is, where does smoking in the home or in a closed vehicle fall along the spectrum?

[mbraynard]

I almost agree with you, but here is the problem: where does it end?

In practice - or where SHOULD it end?

Parents who let their minors play in the streets late at night. Parents who are drug addicts. Parents who physically abuse their children (and how much is too much - just a spank? Or bleeding? Or contusions? Or 'abortions'?)

Look - there isn't a super-clear line here. Even Ayn Rand admitted that when it comes to minors. In practice, it comes from democratic consensus (I know we don't like that term, but that's where it comes from in practice). But the reality is that lines HAVE to be drawn somewhere. I make a good case in post 43 that they should be drawn here.