  urlLink Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | British parents set to lose right to smack children I quote from the article: "Although a study by the National Family and Parenting Institute last year found there was no evidence that mild slaps delivered within a loving relationship damaged a child, it concluded that physical punishment did not work in changing behaviour..." I am so utterly shocked by this. To say the least, I think it is a horrible idea. When in the UK last summer I read in newspapers that this might come to a vote, but I got the impression it was a long shot. Now, it looks to pass. I've written in my parenting essays a pretty extended position on this topic.
I depend on the US's own National Academy of Pediatrics, which last year reversed its policy of recommending parents don't spank, to instead say that physical punishment appears to have the same potential for abuse as emotional punishment. My essays emphatically say that, just as a person in danger of alcoholism, either from genes or experience, should be much more apprehensive about drinking than others, people in danger of abuse either because they themselves were abused or because they've crossed the line before, should avoid spanking, as it could be a gateway to physical abuse.
Politicians like to polarize issues into black/white, good/evil conditions, when nothing in the world abides by such descriptors. In addition to legislating morality, this law appears to be especially weak because the circumstance in which it is reacting would not be prevented tomorrow in light of that law. That case involved an aunt who routinely beat a girl, and no official from the education to medical sectors reported it. Eventually the girl died form injuries sustained during one such beating. 
