Perhaps when they expose the child to mentally anguished states through unsound, fake medical practices?

So does that mean you're against compulsory education and compulsory vaccinations as well?

For some maybe, not for me. Just as if the child is clearly very sick taking then taking them to a faith healer and not to a doctor would bring the law into play. Religions can't issue medical licenses.

Believe 2 out of 50. How many parents in the other 48 have any knowledge about its success and/or failures? Can you even cite the stats? Let alone a average person who really has little knowledge in this area.

So parents take kid to a licensed therapist, he tells them this therapy works in some cases and recommends trying it.

What criminal intent did the parents have?

Does anyone think that the kid would have been better off as a ward of the state? Her parents were doing the best they could with their religious beliefs making it more difficult. No they should not be charged, but it might be time to ban conversion therapy.

The way she killed herself bothers me. She made someone run her over. Not only did she put others in danger but did real harm to the driver that killed her.

Wouldn't it be just as effective to go after the conversion "therapists" instead of the parents in these type of cases. Clearly some people seem to have some discomfort going after the parents, but I think more people would get behind it if you just punished the therapists in these scenarios. Conversion "therapists" can attempt to convert all of the willing adults they want, but taking on children would be punishable. If the therapists are sufficiently deterred, then there is no where for the parents to take them, which would at least solve part of the problem in cases like these.

I'm not personally against them.

It sounds as though most the problems the child had was with the parents not accepting of their wishes. If there is no therapy involved, but the parents still try and change their child's wishes is that now mental abuse too?

I don't think that should be our judgement to make or one we can validly comment on. Clearly ward of the state couldn't have had worse results in this case but it's got to be in the hands of professionals to make the determination in the best interests of the child.

I note that your choice of language is intentionally stupid.

Not sure what you mean. Are you okay with legal requirements on parents to get their children suitably educated and vaccinated. Which means doing so even if their religion or personal beliefs are at odds with the state?

If so then why can't we extend that to other responsibilities on parents? Then we can argue in the usual way about what those legal responsibilities should cover but it's not some matter of principle.

Where to even begin...

Who says you can't? But if your going to, you also need to pass a law that spells out what is the parents requirement actually is and have a compelling reason that it over rides the parents constitutional rights to determine the education and up bringing of their child.

I don't think the parents should be charged. There's a chance they're loving parents who legitimately feared for their child's immortal soul due to his or her sexual orientation. This is what people actually believe. If you charge the parents you have to charge the church as well.

The "conversion therapy" practice should be banned. At first I was thinking it should be legal in the same way that astrology should be legal, but there comes a point where its just too damaging and you have to draw the line. Have a disclaimer saying "Not endorsed by any medical organization and may cause severe depression and suicide"? What's the point.

Y'all should read about scientology's cleansing/purification stuff and look into what their body count is.

plenty of countries have suitable laws so there no big problem writing them.

I'm not an expert on the US constitution but there are ways to change it or bypass it - good laws have to passed somehow. Civil rights for kids if needs be.

Technically, but not practically, true.

Because trying to shape your child to fit your narrow ass world view isn't a valid parenting choice.

In many cases conversion therapy could constitute child abuse. Lawrence v. Texas (2004) held that a belief in homosexuality's immorality could not serve as a rational basis for any state law. On the other hand, the particular manner in which parents and child go about the "therapy" might preclude it from being child abuse in every situation.

My guess is that it almost qualifies as child abuse. Certainly in this case.

Bolded is unclear. If she ends up as a ward of the state, she is there because her family has rejected her. That's pretty tough to handle regardless of any conversion therapy and it's possible that the rejection plus the other generally ****ty conditions that wards of the state have to deal with she may have ended up comitting suicide anyway. Buy you are correct that no can really say that what that would have been like for her.

If youre under the impression that non-physical forms of abuse arent abuse "as defined by the law" youre very mistaken. Try admitting in a custody dispute that you berate and belittle your children but never hit them and see how far you get.

I know it's political correctness gone mad that you cant use racial slurs without the PC brigades coming in. Really unfair, especially since they call each other that!

In case youre not trolling no it's not a parent's religious right to abuse their kids. Christian scientists get successfully prosecuted often for refusing medical treatment for their kids on religious grounds.

I think the kid would be better off as a ward of the state. Unfortunately we'll never know since she was driven to suicide.

Not saying someone can't write a law.

But, in states where conversion therapy is practiced by licensed therapists it seems pretty stupid to say the average parent should know more about this area than the therapists. It's one thing to make it illegal, it is another to retroactively punish the parent for following a therapist advice.

I also think those in the lets charge the parent camp, are really wanting to get involved in all aspects of religious education.

Question for the "it's not child abuse" crowd:

Would a gay couple forcing their straight kid to go to conversion therapy to become gay be considered child abuse?

That's only true in this case. I'm sure there are some "narrow ass world views" that you would find objectionable but even you would not legislate against.

You don't need a constitutional amendment, every state has laws against child abuse which I'm fairly certain includes psychological abuse.

The tricky part is separating criminal non-physical abusive parenting from merely bad parenting in court.

Taking what you say on face value I agree with it. Prosecute the therapist and if that can't be done change the terms of therapist licenses so that it can be.