Kids should sue smoking parents: Doctor

[The Straight Story]

Children should be able to sue their parents for exposing them to harmful second-hand cigarette smoke, says an Alberta doctor.

Dr. Larry Bryan said a puffing ban in cars or homes would be very difficult to enforce, but the message would come across loud and clear if smokers were held legally responsible for their actions through exposure- related lawsuits.

"I suppose what ultimately should be done is a childhood victim of second-hand smoke should legally sue the smoker in the home," said Bryan, a former president of Calgary's Foothills Hospital.

"A strong legal case could be made because of the health harm and evidence that occurs now."

http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=a9a38d84-caa8-4dd7-9a38-f8be118a78ed

[youngdem]

1. Parents should countersue for emotional distress and abuse

I keed, I keed.

[Deja Q]

2. Oh whatever.

Most doctors have to leave the room in order to consult their little book rather than using knowledge and inherent understanding to diagnose an illness.

What next says Dr. Nazi - sue an employer for stress? Wait, that one almost reasonable... forget it.

[Katherine Brengle]

3. In this day and age, when the dangers of smoking and 2nd hand smoke are well known, I would have to

agree - parents have no right to expose their children to it. It's child abuse.

[Bonobo]

4. How about kids suing their parents for being intolerant jerks?

BTW, hope you got a good lawyer.

[Katherine Brengle]

6. That was really unnecessary --

No one has the right to expose other people to toxic second hand smoke.

I used to smoke myself, and absolutely never did so around my child - because I have the right to choose that for myself, but not for anyone else.

I reserve the right to be "intolerant" of that kind of behavior.

Thanks for the name calling though.

[Klukie]

10. It was really unnecessary.....

I agree with you 1000%. I smoked as well for about fifteen years and I quit before my babies were conceived. To willfully subject your children to the highly toxic substances in cigarettes is so very selfish and there is no excuse for it.

[napi21]

5. Sure, and while you're at it,get 'em to sue for taking them too often to

Mickey D's, Burger King, Chuckie Cheese,and Wendy's! In 30 years,let me know which actions prove to be the most damaging.

[Katherine Brengle]

7. Why not?

A child has no control until they are old enough to stand up for themselves.

Parents who harm their children will get no pity from me.

[Bonobo]

8. How about parents who live in the city and expose their kids to pollution?

How about parents who buy small cars that are less safe?

How about parents who take their kids to MacDonalds?

How about parents who don't make their kids where helmets when they rollerskate?

How about parents who let their kids play football?

Etc, etc, etc.

What you are advocating IS intolerance. So if the shoe fits, wear it.

BTW, I am also an Ex-smoker.

[Katherine Brengle]

12. Smoking around your child is intentionally poisoning them --

there isn't a living soul with a working brain in this country who doesn't know the dangers of smoking.

Living in a city is not the same as blowing toxins directly into your child's face.

I refuse to be "tolerant" of anyone who engages in that kind of behavior, and I am disgusted that anyone else would be "tolerant" of it.

[Spangle]

18. Still doesn't cut it.

We are talking extream lists. You can't pick and choose. If parents are going to be sued, then that is a wide open door.

Got any bad habits? Made any mistakes? You would be rare if you was totally perfect. So rare, that I have never heard of such a person.

I have lung damaged that WAS caused by something one of my parents did. So I'm not talking out my butt on this topic.

It's already at the point that I wouldn't adivse people to have kids. That would just be the icing on the cake. Under such rules, I would abort, rather then birth. And totally forget about adoption. Who could take a chance on someone that is just going to sue you for not being perfect? When NO ONE is perfect.

[The Straight Story]

22. Here are some of my thoughts on it all :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x129642

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=133248&mesg_id=133248

[Spangle]

24. That is EXACTLY what I'm talking about

Parenting is getting just as crazy. Got be a perfect parent, or else. It's scary. It's bad enough when everyone is being judgemental, and you can loose your kids over the weirdest things, but to throw in the idea of kids sueing if they don't like how they were raised... that would be the final straw. Why even take a chance? It would be stupid to do so.

Smoking is just one issue. Maybe the first, but it wouldn't be the last. Not in this day of 'sue happy' people. Add in 'family dynamics' and things will get crazy!

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. I hope you don't subject your children to the great outdoors and

all the pollution that your car emits. Sorry, but you're a bit...no more than a bit overboard. :hi;

[NashVegas]

9. Little Brown Shirt Boys and Girls to Serve the Authoritarians

Doesn't matter whether it was Fascism or it was Mao, it still amounts to the same thing.

[TahitiNut]

11. Poor kids. Why couldn't they have it good like the kids in Darfur, Bangladesh, ...

After all, absolutely anything short of PERFECT is a cause for action, right?

[lvx35]

13. I had my first nic-fit when I was about 9.

Because my mom and step dad didn't smoke in the car on our long commute home from dinner out, which they always did. I took up smoking for 13 years from the time I was 16 until I quit I wouldn't sue my parents, but it was a TERRIBLE thing to smoke around me as a kid.

[mmonk]

14. They would have to show they have been damaged,

would they not? The burden of proof would lie with them. If medical exams turned up nothing, I see no basis (but I don't know Canadian law). I guess the kids could send a tip to Homeland Security and the US could pick up the parents and hold them without due process.

[SeattleGirl]

16. Geez, I wish people would go after the tobacco companies with

even half the energy they spend dissing smokers. I wish medical researchers would give the tobacco companies (and the government officials who take money from them) the big middle finger, and say, F you, we are going to double our efforts to find ways that will help people kick the habit permanently.

Now, I am NOT saying it's okay to smoke around children (or anyone else), but many of these suggestions/arguments/etc. are pretty much the same as show up in debates about immigration -- let's blame the illegal immigrants ONLY, and let the employers who hire them (knowingly) get off scott free. Let's blame the smokers ONLY, and let the tobacco companies off scott free. That's such BS.

Smokers have a responsibility to not subject others to it, and where kids are concerned, extra care should be taken to not smoke around them. But the tobacco companies have an even bigger responsibility, IMHO. I saw a report the other day that over the past few years, the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has increased by 10%. So people try to quit, and the tobacco companies just jack up the amount of addictive materials in the cigarettes.

I know the tobacco companies lost a big lawsuit (hooray!), but as long as people spend most of their energy on individual smokers, instead of the corporations that continue to manufacture cigarettes, AND continue to increase the addictive qualities of them, it's not going to make as much difference as using some of that energy against Big Tobacco. And, against politicians who take money from their lobbyists.

This fight cannot be won on just one front. The makers of the product have a responsiblity in this, just as much as individuals do.

Here's a link to an article about the increase in the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, from The Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2006/08/30/cigarettes_pack_more_nicotine/

[Nicole]

17. Fantastic post

I agree completely. :thumbsup:

[Spangle]

19. Attacking smokers

actually makes it harder to quit. Same with most addictions. It doesn't work, doesn't help, etc.

Generally, when I hear people griping about people over such things, I just think the person is trying to make themselfs feel better by dissing someone else. Everyone has faults. LOL!

[SeattleGirl]

20. Agreed, Spangle.

I do think that smokers should be able to ask a smoker to put it out, or move, or whatever, but some are just downright weird. Years ago, when smoking in designated indoor smoking areas was still legal in Washington, this nonsmoker walked all the way across the restaurant, got in MY fact, and bitched about my smoking. Hello? I was no where near her, and she came into my space! :eyes:

As I said, if a lot of people would put energy into fighting the tobacco companies, and in urging the medical research community to find better ways to quit smoking, I think it would be great, and it would go a long way toward getting more and more people to stop smoking!

[Spangle]

23. I got a better one!

How about standing in line out side for several hours to see VP Gore give a campaign speach. Wide, long line. No space to be able to smoke without someone 'getting it.' After doing without, and finally 'let loose' in the park and lighting up with no one around. A monther pushing a stroller picks a spot about 5 car lengths away and starts giving dirty looks. Finaly demands the cig be put out, because it's damaging her baby. Aghm... she is the one UP WIND, the smoker was down wind. And she is the one that just kept her child in a stroller, next to a busy street INHALING exhoust for several hours.

Some people are just brain damaged.

I know what your talking about. But it was odd to see. My friend is one that always trys to keep smoke away from others. Changes places to make sure the smoke is going 'away' from the others. Not because asked, but because she watches such things. Then to be treated like that, after SHE went to the effort of ensuring no one was going to be around the smoke. <shurg> And by someone who had already spent hours contaminting her childs lungs. People just don't THINK!

[SeattleGirl]

25. Oy, that's one messed up woman.

So, I guess in her mind, exhaust fumes are healthy??? :eyes:

[SoCalDem]

21. And fat kids could then sue their Moms for buying all that junk food n/t

[sandnsea]

26. And drinking in front of them

using sedatives to calm your nerves in front of them, using household cleaning supplies, and all us grown ups could sue our parents for lead and asbestos, then we could move on to yelling and too many sexual partners and missing that parent/teacher conference in spring of the 4th grade, and...

[REP]

27. I Have a Genetic Kidney Disease - Can I Sue For That, Too?

As a matter of fact, not only is my FSGS genetic, so is my diabetes. Both my parents smoked, too... Ka-ching! Too bad my father is dead and I would like my mother to live out the rest of her life indoors with food, medicine and utilities; otherwise I'd be kinf og the world (well, except for the diabetes and kidney failure).

[TahitiNut]

28. I have congenital scoliosis. Where's my lawyer?

:rofl:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. Well, it's too late for me

My folks passed on in 2000 and 2002.
They both smoked when I was a little kid. They stopped when the first report came out from the Ochsner Clinic in N.O. about smoking causing lung cancer, in the early 60s. I was probably 8 or 9.

Damages? I have scar tissue visible in X rays of my lungs. It looks like little dandruff spots in lines, lining the bronchi. I have had bad allergies to many things and sinus hell my whole life, including numerous bouts of bronchitis and life-threatening bacterial pneumonia several times. I also have allergic ashthma and have to use a damned expensive inhaler combo (those purple round UFO things). I've gotten so depressed I wondered if I could live in a large baggie like The Bubble Boy, with an air cleaner, ozone generator to kill the mold, and air conditioning attached.

Some of it was caused by the air pollution, but I'm sure some of it was caused by the second-hand smoke. I don't remember what dad smoked but mom was so macho she smoked Marlboros.

[BlueIris]

30. Curious. I've often wondered why we don't see more child abuse lawsuits

in this world.

[Nikki Stone1]

31. Don't sue parents. Make nicotine illegal.

Don't put the burden on individuals. Regulate the goddamned death industry.

[SeattleGirl]

32. Just banning it will not work, IMHO, Nikki

hey tried it with alcohol, and it didn't work. Same thing would happen with tobacoo. It would merely create a black market. I do believe it would be much better if the medical research community to work together to come up with a really good way to take away the cravings.

[Hippo_Tron]

34. Yea, that worked with marijuana and narcotics

We don't have prisons full of nonviolent drug offenders or anything.

[ShortnFiery]

33. Dumbest. Statement. Ever.

:rofl: Perhaps all those smokes kept them sane so that they didn't just abandon us little terrors to fend for ourselves on the city streets?

Think about that Doctor Know-It-All? :P