For Immediate Release
August 1, 2005
Patricia Weathers
President
(845) 677-4118
Chairman Sensenbrenner Backs Majority Leader DeLay on the Importance of Parental Rights
Congressman
James Sensenbrenner, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has weighed in
on the importance of maintaining parental consent rights. These parental
rights are now in jeopardy if H.R. 181, The Parental Consent Act of 2005 dies in
committee.
Congressman
Sensenbrenner has emphatically stated, "It is not, and should not be, the
role of government to subject children to arbitrary mental health screenings
without the consent of their parents. Parents, children, and their
private doctors should determine whether a child has mental health problems, not
government bureaucrats."
His statement comes just after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay stood up for parental rights and released this statement last week. “In the wake of the creation of psychiatric labels, every parent should be wary of relinquishing their responsibility to the government to define and assess their child's mental health status."
The
highly controversial issue of mandatory mental health screening programs of
American school children initiated by the President’s New Freedom Commission
on Mental Health is the subject of widespread debate. This debate
arises due to the use of subjective, unscientific psychological testing methods
used for screening children for mental illness without the provision of full
parental informed consent in place. This “testing” is currently
awaiting federal funds to expand the implementation of screening programs
nationwide.
“If
H.R. 181 is passed it will prevent wasteful and potentially devastating federal
funding while safeguarding the informed consent rights of all parents in what is
a most serious matter, their children’s health and safety”, says Patricia
Weathers President and co-founder of Ablechild.org a national non-profit group
of parents committed to ensuring that the issue of informed consent and an
individual’s right to “opt out” of psychological testing is a national
priority.
Dr.
Grace Jackson, a board certified psychiatrist since 1996 recently stated,
“Contrary to the reports which have been emphasized by the major news outlets,
there is no evidence to justify the claim that psychiatric disorders arise from
anatomic or physiological abnormalities in the brain. Based upon a variety of
theoretical and practical limitations, the functional imaging technologies
cannot identify the origin of mental phenomena.”
In
light of such growing controversial fervor and obvious lack of agreement on the
issue of psychiatric diagnoses within the medical establishment itself, any
promotion or implementation of mandated, which is equivalent to forced,
screening methods should be viewed as a national threat to public health, and
should be challenged by the American public.
For
more information on mental health screening programs, psychiatric drug risks,
and the FDA’s warnings regarding psychiatric drugs, please visit www.ablechild.org
.