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The Spectacle Blog
The Obama administration is worried about the problem, indeed veritable “crisis,” of adult children who do not visit their parents. Officials reportedly are considering legislation to mandate “regular” visits. Failure to do so could result in a lawsuit. Trial attorneys have expressed their strong support for the concept.
Actually, it isn’t the Obama administration which is considering this approach. It is the Chinese government. Reports the New York Times:
Under a proposal submitted last Monday by the Civil Affairs Ministry to China’s State Council, adult children would be required by law to regularly visit their elderly parents. If they do not, parents can sue them.
“Before, the courts did not accept this kind of lawsuit,” Wu Ming, a deputy inspector for the ministry, told The Legal Evening News this month. “But from now on, they will have to open up a case.”
The proposed amendment to a 1996 law on rights of the aged could be considered by the National People’s Congress, China’s government-appointed legislature, when it conducts its annual session in March.
However, it sounds like something that the Obama administration could easily support. Such a step would simultaneously create a new “right” while enriching lawyers. What’s not to like!?
Let’s just hope the administration is focused on Egypt and not paying any attention to China right now.
View all comments (7) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/30/the-obama-administration-plan
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JimH| 1.30.11 @ 8:14AM
Does the AARP have a chapter in China?
Eric Dondero | 1.30.11 @ 10:54AM
Brillant little piece. Comparing Obama's nanny-state policies to that of the most recent effort by the Chinese government to enforce mandatory parent visits, very insightful.
You are an absolute paradox Bandow. It always puzzles me, how someone like you can be so exceptional when it comes to economic policies and individual liberties, but so darnright assinine on foreign policy?
Left Libertarians. They'll support freedom in the economic and civil sphere, but are apologists for the world's authoritarians. We pro-defense libertarians call them "50%-ers"; they're 100% right on 50% of the issues, and 100% wrong on the other 50%.
Jim T| 1.30.11 @ 3:01PM
Gosh Dondero, did you read the same post as I did?
What comment on foreign policy did you read into this, that Obama should focus on Egypt and not pay attention to China?
I believe the author's point there was that he didn't want Obama getting any ideas about discovering a similar, government enforceable "right" of parents to visits by their adult children.
Considering that Obama is apparently a close follower of idiot Thomas L. Friedman (that "Sputnik moment" comment was lifted wholesale from a Friedman column) there is after all, some risk that he may be looking to China for ideas on how better to organize life for his subjects.
Eric Dondero | 1.31.11 @ 5:17AM
Whooosh........ That's the sound of something flying right over your head.
Not referring to Obama's lack of response on Egypt. To the contrary. Bandow is a left-libertarian, and has a history of being soft on Islamo-Fascism (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.)
Debra| 1.30.11 @ 5:26PM
Gee, I haven't seen my son since Christmas and I miss him. Think I'll send him a link to this article and maybe he'll take the hint!
Sean| 1.31.11 @ 8:25AM
The Supreme Court can refer to this law in their decisions if it comes about. Some the member are fond of foreign law for precedent.
BillCC| 1.31.11 @ 8:58AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/america’s-one-child-policy
China's one-child policy, coupled with an absence of a now-unaffordable old-age pension program, will produce a slow-motion crisis over the next couple of decades involving hundreds of millions of elderly Chinese with no visible means of support. The legal requirement for elderly visitation will not mitigate this.
Probably should have thought out that one-child rule a little better before implementation. Ain't hindsight a wonderful thing?