Moral Landscapes

We are also overmedicating and over-vaccinating pregnant moms and newborn babies/toddlers. The vaccine schedule for babies is now 36 shots by the time a baby is 18 months old. A recent study with macaque monkeys ("The macaque monkey's nearly 3 billion DNA base pairs are 93.5% identical to those found in the human genome) revealed actual major changes in the brains of the vaccinated monkeys (as seen on brain scans) from the same vaccine schedule given to U.S. babies in the 1990's. Of course, babies born in the 90's are now teenagers and young adults, a striking number of whom are manifesting the problems cited in this article.

Reference:
Laura Hewitson, Brian J. Lopresti, Carol Stott, N. Scott Mason, and Jaime Tomko. Influence of pediatric vaccines on amygdala growth and opioid ligand binding in rhesus macaque infants: A pilot study. Acta Neurobiol Exp 2010. 70: 147–164

I can agree with the article pretty much as a whole,and have been saying that humanity has really been going into the toilet.
The only part I can't agree with is the breast feeding,if it wasn't for formula and soy milk I wouldn't have survived infant-hood, yes I think its healthy and natural but some woman (like my mom) just can't produce enough milk for a baby.

A fascinating paper. Thanks for posting it. I especially appreciated the comment about not blaming mothers. In thinking about this post and about Roy Baumeister's work on self control, I find myself wondering if we're in danger of creating a morally stressed culture where an increasing number of people are incapable of acting ethically?

Once again, many thanks for your work.

After 12 years as a volunteer guardian ad litem I started a non profit with a mission to alert the community to the plight of abused and neglected children would be effective in bringing change.

I hoped that this children's cause would catch on like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and bring people together to protect children.

It has not happened. While it is possible that our nation has become immune to other peoples suffering and just won't respond to anything like it did thirty years ago, I think a core issue is that social workers being trained to not speak of their work means that most people do not know the severity of child abuse or the consequences of extended exposure to violence and deprivation.

Support at risk children;

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/08/03/voting-for-children/

www.invisiblechildren.org

I agree with you that many people are not aware of the extent of child abuse in this country. James Prescott has been writing about the causes of child abuse for decades (see http://www.violence.de/). Thank you for alerting us to your organization and mission. We need to raise the level of concern for these issues.

People are also not aware of the perhaps subtle but common child neglect (as pointed out in the blog). Parenting gets worse generation by generation (if you had neglectful caregivers you tend to be worse). First time parents are often poor parents on their own (they need a wise and supportive extended family). We are forgetting what children (and people) need to develop into good people. Through neglect and abuse we are raising our kids to be self-centered lizards (what I call the security ethic) instead of compassionate, morally-adept citizens who have the capacity to solve problems without coercion or aggression.

Breastfeeding Bonding for "two yeas or greater", as recommended by WHO/UNICEF, in their 1970 INNOCENTI DECLARATION http://www.violence.de/prescott/letters/WHO_Innocenti_Declaration.pdf
is core to human survival. Studies by this author have documented that weaning age of 2.5 years or greater in tribal cultures are rated low or absent in suicide in 77& (20/26) of cultures studies. This percentage was increased to 82% (14/17) when premarital affectional sexual bonding was taken into account.

In studies of the U.S. the CDC reported on the PERCNT CHILDREN BREASTED AT 12 MONTHS BY STATE (2004) which I related to the infant mortality rates of the States for the same year-2004. i found that 90% (9/10) of the STATES with less than 15% of Children breastfeeding at 12 months have the highest infant mortality rates; and 83% (10/12) with greater than 25% of children breastfeeding at 12 months have the lowest infant mortality rates. These data are presented on my blog http://ttfuture.org/blog/1181

Affectional bonding in the mother-infant/child relationship and in the teen sexual relationship are core to the survival of homo sapiens and culture must support mothers being nurturing mothers--she cannot do it alone.--http://www.montagunocircpeti.org, http://ttfuture.org/violence, http://ttfuture.org/blog/1181

Thanks, Jim, for your comment and links to resources. If we are going to change our culture, we need to pay attention to what brings about well being. Thanks for your prophetic voice on these matters over many years. Here is another place where I mention your work: http://magazine.nd.edu/news/16434-time-to-spoil-that-baby/

So this is why American undergraduates are so WEIRD? And why financial operatives have so easily taken risks and devised tempted credit offers without any regard for the welfare of others or some larger social good? Sounds quite convincing. I would only ad those countless numbers spent before flickering screens - they are bound to induce some unhealthy neurological adaptations...

Beware of one dimensional explanations for complex social problems. There is no doubt a degree of truth in this point of view but I don't see enough supporting data here to be drawing the kind of general conclusions that are being made. I note the up coming conferences and will be interested to see if more data is made available at them. Until then remember correlation does not equal causation.

The subject line pretty much says it all, but as an academic and a parent, I appreciate your attempts to educate the public, and especially medical professionals, about the importance of touch, breastfeeding, responsiveness, etc. in infancy and early childhood. As a researcher by profession, I naturally have spent quite a bit of energy researching "best parenting practices" from the psychological, medical, and ethnopediatric fields. Despite the overwhelming evidence for the appropriateness of almost all aspects of the "attachment parenting" lifestyle, I have been shocked that the recommendations of my toddler's pediatrician and my GP almost always contradict current research's recommendations (ie, cosleeping, extended breastfeeding, breastfeeding on demand, etc.). If I didn't have the resources to back my parenting, I'm sure that I would accept those recommendations at face value or at least ultimately give in to their pressure, and I'm quite sure that many parents find themselves going against their better instincts due to medical recommendations. The symposium sounds fascinating, and I hope that some of the presentations and dialogues will be posted on the web for public consumption.

Hi Gina,
Thanks for the wise perspective. The symposium talks will indeed be made available as videos online afterwards. I will make sure to point them out in a blog once they are up (certainly by November).

Darcia

Thank you very much, Darcia, for taking the leadership and much of the hard work of putting on an amazing convergence of insights and ideas to change the world, starting at or before birth. I am thrilled to have been part of it.

The problem with meetings such as this is that one comes away inspired, then loses momentum. In order to help in preventing that, I'd like to offer a few small practical suggestions that might give impetus to changes outside the group that met this week. We need to put into practice what we preached, letting nature back into human nature.

As an advocate for young children in the United States the first specific concern I see is the need for paid family leave. The United States in one of only two or three developed countries that have no laws requiring employers to continue some payments to their employees when and appreciably after they have babies. Mothers do need time to build the bonds we talked about, and they become depressed when they have to go back to work before they are fully ready to take that on. Legislation was introduced but not passed in the current Congress to that effect, and California has begun to implement a payroll tax-based family leave that will begin to provide some support there. We need to press our legislators, using the research on which the Symposium was based, to allow for secure attachments.

Second, children need to know that they are respected, and that they have rights just as older people do. There's an excellent vehicle for the recognition of those rights in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most universally accepted international human rights treaty in the history of the world. Unfortunately, the United States joins Somalia as the only UN members that haven't yet joined in. U.S. Senators need to know that we care about this.

A third, and far more wide-ranging concern is that very little has appeared in the popular press explaining recent research about the importance of early attachment to children's later lives, and of the specific practices that enhance the security of attachment. If more parents got the message about why every child needs to be welcomed into this world with respect, understanding and attention, what a change that would make! That public "education" also would yield benefits for the funding and use of parenting education courses, home visiting, and other family support systems.

GENITAL MUTILATION OF CHILDEN IS TORTURE AND A MORAL CRIME

The following information was presented at the Symposium on Human Nature and Early Experience, Collaborative for Ethical Education (CEE), Notre Dame University http://cee.nd.edu>http://cee.nd.edu and the readers are invited to oppose all forms of genital mutilation of children through the Petition presented to Senator Leahy, Chairman Senate Judiciary Committee (below)
******
The Committee On Bioethics is derelict in its duties by refusing to acknowledge that The Genital Mutilation of Children is Torture (Male and Female) and that the term “mutilation” has been abandoned for “neutrality”.

The author’s state: “It is paradoxical to recommend “culturally sensitive counseling” while using culturally insensitive language. “Female genital cutting” is a neutral, descriptive term.4”.

It is universally recognized that the stripping of the skin from the body is an act of torture, particularly, without anesthesia, and when perpetrated upon children. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed in Article 5: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and confirmed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Universal Declaration on Circumcision, Excision, and Incision Hague was unanimously passed by the General Assembly of the First International Symposium on Circumcision (March 3, 1989) and later incorporated into The Ashley Montagu Resolution To End The Genital Mutilation of Children Worldwide: A Petition To The World Court, The published in the Fourth International Symposium on Sexual Mutilations (Denniston and Milos, 1996) and are posted at:
http://www.montagunocircpetition.org

Letters of endorsement of The Montagu Resolution were received by Drs F.H.C. Crick, Jonas Salk and many other national/international citizens and scientists of the world, also available at the above website. http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/fourth/endorse1.pdf
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/fourth/endorse2.pdf

It was acknowledged that Federal Law establishes Female Genital Mutilation as a crime (PL 104-208), which was enacted on September 30, 1996 and the criminal provisions became effective on March 30, 1997. The 14th Amendment states “nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”, which extends the criminal sanctions under PL 104-208 to male children. This reality has yet to be acknowledged by the Congress.

Attorney General Holder, Jr. and Senator Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee dated 25 August 2010 were petitioned to enforce this law to assure this protection to male children, under the 14th Amendment.
http://mgmbill.org/usfgmlaw.htm
http://www.montagunocircpetition.org/genital-mutilation-children-torture.pg

Judge J. Flaherty (1978). In The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Civil Division. McFall v Shimp. stated in his OPINION:

."..."For a law to compel the Defendant to submit to an intrusion of his body would change every concept and principle upon which our society is founded. To do so would defeat the sanctity of the individual and would impose a rule which would know no limits and one could not imagine where the line would be drawn"..."Forceable extraction of living body tissue causes revulsion to the judicial mind. Such would raise the spectre of the swastika and the Inquisition, reminiscent of the horrors this portends. "An Order will be entered denying the request for a preliminary injunction."
http://www.violence.de/prescott/letters/McFall_v_Shimp.pdf

The opposition to “culturally insensitive language” has negated the very essence of our humanity; denies what is meant by “human civilization” and is a betrayal of the core of medical ethics: “First, Do No Harm”.

FROM THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS: COMMITTEE ON BIOETHICS
Policy Statement—Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors
Pediatrics 2010; 0: peds.2010-0187v1-20100187 [Abstract] [PDF]
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2010-0187v1

Dr.. Judith Paltrey, President, American Academy of Pediatrics has rightfully rejected the AAP Committee on Bioethics, which supported “clitoral nicks”, and is petitioned to provide the same defense of male children, as female children, that ends genital mutilation of children, which is a sexual assault with excruciating pain, has no medical justification, and has life long consequences for the formation of affectional bonds.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/eletters/peds.2010-0187v1#50189

James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
Institute of Humanistic Science
1140-23 Savannah Road
Lewes, DE 19958
302.645.7436
jprescott34@comcast.net
http://www.violence.de
http://www.montagunocircpetition.org
http://ttfuture.org/violence

28 April 2010
19 October 2010

My 5 children are living proof that parents have a profound impact on the happiness and success of their children. I have PTSD and have homeschooled 3 of my 5 children up until high school. All three have easily transitioned to good private high school life. Two are currently in college. The youngest two are still currently at home with me a good part of their week.

I'm not praising myself, but want to encourage parents to find a healthy balance of play, nurture, work, traditions, faith, etc. for their children. This is what life is all about - a healthy balance. If you see my website at http://www.nucleusoflife.com I often discuss how critical it is for parents to be their for their children while they are young.

Many of the points Darcia makes are also said in regards to my approach to raising a family. For example, when a child sees their parents committed to serving them unconditionally, they experience and become one of the most profound witnesses to unselfish love. We've had hard times too but have always been there for eachother.

When my children reached high school age, I saw a tremendous maturity in them. Almost a need for them to go out into the world and evangelize with others. I was right. They all have awesome friends. I worry about some children I see when they seem to lack this necessary empathy and compassion Darcia speaks about in her article. Fortunately, my children do not appear to be too close to such individuals (safe from negative influences) but are and remain friends with them. They seem to know who to trust and continuously lift up God and family in their efforts.

If I have PTSD and have managed five children - I know other parents can do the same! I am looking forward to hearing more about this.