Monday, February 06, 2006

Doctors 'to report underage sex' | the Daily Mail

One characteristic of a police state is an expectation by the authorities that every loyal citizen will function as a policeman. British lawyers now have a duty to report their clients to the authorities (without "tipping off" the client) if they suspect a crime. British doctors and nurses are now to report their patients to the authorities if they believe they have been engaged in under-age sex. No doubt this duty will be extended in future. The effect in both cases is the same. People who need help and advice will be afraid to seek it. The message is clear; the relationship with the State takes priority over relationships of trust between professionals and those they serve.

Another characteristic of a police state is that the State takes priority over the family. One of the most chilling actions of the Soviet State was to make a Communist saint of Pavlik Morozov, a little boy who supposedly denounced his own father to the authorities. Every day a youngster went home wearing a Young Pioneers badge bearing Morozov's image, he was delivering a threat from the government to his parents. It is therefore interesting to note that Doctors are to be required not to inform the parents, who could then take their own decision in the interests of their child, but the authorities. If, God forbid, I had ever been in that position, I can imagine that I might have taken other steps to protect my child than involving the police.

Every day, little by little, Britain assumes more and more of the characteristics of a police state. A tipping point will be reached - perhaps it already has - when there is no going back.

Doctors 'to report underage sex' | the Daily Mail

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