The portion of goods that falleth to me: Parental rights, children's rights, and medical decisions after COVID‐19

• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Author: B. Isaac Gibson
• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12657

ARTICLE

The portion of goods that falleth to me: Parental

rights, children's rights, and medical decisions

after COVID-19

B. Isaac Gibson

University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis

School of Law, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Correspondence

B. Isaac Gibson, University of Louisville Louis

D. Brandeis School of Law, 3667 Woodruff

Avenue, Louisville, KY 40215, USA.

Email: barry.gibson@louisville.edu

Abstract

The advent and perpetuation of the COVID-19 pandemic

has served to highlight issues in American law that have

long gone unaddressed. Prominent among them are the

issues involving parents, the government, and the medical

decisions of children. This article examines the current state

of American law involving parental rights, children's rights,

and the government's role in medical decisions of children

and proposes a uniform act as a solution to the discrepancy

and unpredictability in this area of American law.

KEYWORDS

children's rights, COVID-19, parens patriae, healthcare, medical

decisions, parental rights, vaccine

Key points for the family court community

•American law has failed to appropriately define the con-

tours children's rights in relation to parental rights, par-

ticularly as it relates to medical decisions

•The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust this issue into the

national political spotlight with disputes over vaccina-

tions and mask mandates for children

•Court decisions in this paramount arena vary widely

among states with only a handful of states having stat-

utes that even indirectly address the issue of children's

rights in medical decisions

•Like parentage lawsin the 20th century, societal evolution

has outpaced the law'sdevelopment in children's rights

DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12657

© 2022 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

590 Family Court Rev. 2022;60:590–601.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fcre