Amy Gemoules posted a comment on another article about something called TeenScreen. Having never heard of it I decided to do some research. I started with the link to an online petition she left and read through their complaints.
I found the petition inflammatory, full of rhetoric and self-serving. Sweeping comments like "... controversial and unscientific Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, written by psychiatrists with financial ties to drug companies..." and "...'chemical imbalance of the brain' theory, which relies solely upon observation and for which no scientific or medical test exists..." serve only to misinform and agitate.
Then I checked out TeenScreen' website. It paints a rosy picture of how everyone benefits from this type of screening and how it should be given to every child. I found that it missed some of the much larger social implications in its zeal to test our children. Add to it that, regardless of the site’s affirmation that parental consent is an absolute; children have been tested without parental consent as the lawsuit in Indianna shows.
This is not a petition I will be signing; however, this is also not a test I would want to become mandatory.
Check back I want to write in more depth about both sides of the argument over forced screening of our children.
[Updated Sept 27 to change the state of the lawsuit from Michigan to Indianna]
» Mantatory Mental Health Screening for Our Children Part 1 from PharmaGazette
Previously I had posted in response to a comment that had been posted after one of my articles. The comment contained a link to a petition to stop TeenScreen which is the testing of children for depression and suicidal tendencies.... [Read More]
Tracked on: September 22, 2007 12:01 PM | Permalink to Trackback