by Michael Burns, President of Illinois Alliance for Parents and Children
(CHICAGO) -- Did Parental Alienation play a role in a 12-year-old daughter's sex change operation? That is the question that family rights advocates across the globe are asking after a recent story that appeared in the UK's Evening Standard, published on May 25th, 2008.
The daughter has obtained permission from a family court judge in Melbourne Australia to begin a sex change procedure over the objections of the father, who claims she has been brainwashed and manipulated by the mother into getting the operation in a familiar phenomena known as Parental Alienation.
"Parental Alienation is a pervasive problem that occurs most frequently in the context of protracted divorce and child custody determinations, where the custodial parent engages in a systematic program of psychological coercion and brainwashing that unduly influences children to reject the other parent without their effective consent," says Dr. Mark Rogers, co-founder of the Illinois Alliance for Parents and Children, a Chicago-based parent advocacy group.
"It is by far one of the most damaging things that can happen to minor children,
who frequently lack the means or stamina to resist such coercion," says Rogers,
who often acts as a Forensic Consultant in contested divorce and child custody
determinations. "What we have in this case is a text book example of the psychological damage that can occur to children, who lack the critical faculties to understand what is happening to them. The fact that lawmakers in Illinois and elsewhere have resisted stronger measures to punish such coercion in order to deter it from occurring in the first place puts innocent parents and children at-risk for further psychological harm, regardless of the demonstrated need for such reforms."
Rogers is among a growing group of experts who are calling for reforms in Family
Law in order to curb instances of Parental Alienation.
Family court watchers in Australia report that the daughter has already begun to have hormone treatment in the first known case involving a minor. A family cousin, who resided with the family for two and a half years, said that after a
very bitter break-up, the mother had used the child in retaliation against the father, claiming that the girl has been "vindictively brainwashed" by her mother into making the decision to have the sex change.
"By the time that Parental Alienation has occurred, there is no guarantee that it can be undone," says Rogers. "Our communities can no longer afford a society that supports the disenfranchisement of parents and children. We need statutes in place that help get us ahead of the phenomena in order to reduce conflict, and protect the vital bonds that exist between them."
The father is now appealing to the Melbourne legal system for assistance in fighting the court order after running out of money to afford legal representation
in opposing the sex change request.
Join the conversation on policies to prevent Parental Alienation on our Blog,
located at: www.illinoisparentsandchildren.blogspot.com
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About us
The Illinois Alliance for Parents and Children is a newly formed non-partisan public interest group located in Chicago. Our primary policy objectives concern the protection and promotion of parental involvement and autonomy across all areas of society where children are impacted. IAPC promotes unique programs and policy initiatives through research, advocacy and outreach activities--and seeks to establish a substantive Family Policy that reflects the changing needs of our culture.
For more information, visit our Web site at: www.illinoisparentsandchildren.org
