Preview

Parental Responsibility Toward Children Smoking

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
401 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Parental Responsibility Toward Children Smoking
Parental Responsibility and Smoking Perhaps one of the most explosive public issues, with distinct moral dimensions, is what parents are responsible for in their children’s behavior, including health-impeding ones such as smoking, drinking, and other matters. Although in some states it is illegal for those under 18 to smoke in public, never mind what the parents’ views are on the matter, we can consider the issue apart from this fact of the law. Once again the issue is one of context, not of categorical moral principles. Parents often rightfully expose their children to hazards that are as great if not greater than exposing them to various health hazards. Can one say the same thing about allowing one’s children to smoke, drink, even use some narcotics (apart from their sometimes being illegal)? We might start addressing this issue by noting that certainly people in various cultures around the globe bring up their children differently, including allowing them to smoke, drink and otherwise indulge, at least in moderation. Hungarian children routine drink wine at the dinner table when they are only 8 years old. And that is but a rather mild instance of the diversity involving the raising of children around the world. It would be very difficult to argue that in each case child abuse is going on. Even child labor, which in the United States is outlawed or officially regulated, cannot sensibly be uniformly condemned. It is arguable, of course, that the context of American culture is such that given the information most parents could obtain about the health risks of various practices and given that taking certain health risks, such as those arising from smoking cigarettes, serves no overriding valued purpose, parents in America and similar cultures are morally irresponsible if they allow their children to smoke and indulge in similar risky practices. Yet America and many other developed societies are these days multicultural, despite the fact that information about health

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay On Secondhand Smoke

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Children who grow up with parents who smoke are themselves more likely to smoke. Children and teens who smoke are affected by the same health problems that affect adults. Secondhand smoke may cause problems for children later in life including:…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In a study conducted through the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, it was found that between the years of 1998-2006, fifty percent of American children were exposed to second hand smoke on a daily basis. Dave Eggers, having experienced this statistic first-hand, tends to have a very biased but yet unique opinion as to why smokers continue with their habit-- even though they are all well aware of the possible outcomes of their choices. In 1998, Eggers wrote an essay that was published in Esquire Magazine. Continuing to fight the idea of smoking and it’s after-effects, Eggers uses personal experience, interviews, and research into tobacco companies to depict the one idea in regards to a smoker’s death that has gone unanswered for far too long: “Ultimately, who’s to blame?”…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dont Get Me Started

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Smoking, don’t you just hate it! Don't get me started on smokers! What is the point in spending hundreds or possibly thousands of pounds a year on a box of useless cigarettes? You might as well throw all the money you own down the drain! Or a more reasonable idea would be to save the money and buy something more useful and maybe go abroad!. You'll always seem to find that one selfish person who contently throws their money toward tobacco or cigarettes and couldn't care less about their own children. Not only does it give children a negative influence, but it also puts them at the risk of health problems like cancer, which will most likely kill your child.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smoking, don’t you just hate it! Don't get me started on smokers too! What is the point in spending hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year on a box of pointless cigarettes? Smokers may as well throw all the money they own down the drain! A better more cleaver idea would be to save the money and buy something more useful and maybe go on a well-deserved holiday!. You’ll always seem to find that one selfish, lowlife of a person who constantly throws their money toward tobacco, cigarettes or even weed and couldn't care less about their own family or friends. And if you smoke around young children not only does it give them a negative influence, but it also puts them at the risk of health problems like cancer, which will most likely kill you or your child.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smoking During Pregnancy

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Arsenic, rocket fuel, toilet cleaner, lighter fluid, and batteries; what if this were the newest baby food? American’s would be in outcry and rightly so. These ingredients are all poisonous, yet they aren’t just found in rat poison and household cleaners, they are found in cigarettes. Despite this 10% of women will smoke cigarettes regularly throughout their pregnancies even though they have full knowledge of the consequences (“Program”). The children of these mother’s are exposed to over 4000 chemicals before they are even born (“Neurobehavior”). While some may believe that smoking during pregnancy is a women’s right, in reality it is child abuse due to the mother knowingly putting her child in danger. Due to the severe health risks smoking cigarettes during pregnancy puts mother and child in, it should be outlawed and strict consequences put into place in order to protect America’s children.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Teen Tobacco Use

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Furthermore, I collected enough information on this topic to understand the subject of teen smoking, why teens choose to smoke, and what cities and states are doing to prevent it. For example, according to Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria in a interview by Steve Leblanc of the Cape Cod Times, teens may not even know why they smoke and that the reasons are often complex. Therefore, he stated “There is no single reason why young people engage in risky behavior such as smoking… there should be a multifaceted approach to embrace youth smoking.” Though, it should be noted that Altria, the company Bill works for, a father company to many big tobacco companies, meaning his words may just be hollow promises to take action on teens smoking; so then, if teens stop smoking a large profit would be lost making him earn less. Indeed, many places happen to take on the issue of teen smoking with a serious and stern approach, with positive results. In fact, Massachusetts has put a state wide smoking ban in many places throughout the state- especially in restaurants- which have barred teens from smoking in public, and if caught they will have to pay a hefty fine. Subsequently, since the passing of this smoking ban from 2005 to 2007 the percent of high school…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smoking In Canada

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A child, whose mother smoked half a pack a day while pregnant with him, is 3 times more likely to have a mucus blocked airway and suffer from apnea episodes. These children are also 25% more likely to have a learning disability. Women who smoke while pregnant run the risk of exposing their child to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), infections, colds, asthma, bronchitis, impaired lung functions and much more. In Canada there are 180-270 children that die annually from SIDS due to exposure to smoke. Babies and children are defenseless to the environment their parents put them in. By allowing parents, especially expectant mothers, to smoke we are condoning the abuse of the little miracles God gave us. For the sake of the defenseless, smoking should be banned in…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Some people feel that our society is moving toward regarding cigarette smoking as deviant. Before determining whether it is true or not, there is a need to define what is deviant. According to the Oxford dictionary (2008), deviant means “different from what most people consider to be normal and acceptable” (p. 547). What does it mean? To tell what is deviant and how to determine if an act is deviant, different scholars would use different approaches, for example: biological, psychological, and sociological. In this paper, I would like to focus on the sociological theories.…

    • 2066 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcohol and Tobacco

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Alcohol and tobacco use is becoming more common every day in our society. The media is continuously advertising tobacco companies and different brands of alcohol, while the government is continuously sending warning messages about the harm that alcohol and tobacco can cause. Tobacco can forever damage you’re your internal organs, while alcohol can cause major damage to your body as well as the people surrounding you. Although the public knows about the negative effects of these products, people still continue to use the substances without thinking twice. These products are legal if you are of age, so people will continue to experiment with alcohol and tobacco. On the other hand, drugs are not legal and are not advertised all over the media because they are prohibited in our society. If drugs were legal, experimentation and usage of these dangerous and deadly drugs would skyrocket. The usage of alcohol and tobacco is legal, but the usage of drugs should be prohibited in the United States.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The drug industries do not understand the damage that is being caused. Millions of people are dying from smoking alone. Especially with teenagers starting to use the addictive drugs, the children that are using cigarettes before fifteen are “eighty times more likely to use illicit drugs.” (Katel) Although few fifteen year olds smoke, this will cause many families to be destroyed.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nonresident Fathers

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The purpose of this article was to research the relationship between nonresident fathers and their involvement with their offspring, as well as the behavior that adolescents exhibit when their fathers are nonresidential by excessive cigarette smoking and this research was conducted with the help of using a nationally representative longitudinal dataset. It was hypothesized by the authors of the article that the lower the involvement of nonresidential fathers, the higher the risk of developing health damaging behaviors, especially among females. The authors original hypothesis was supported, concluding that if nonresidential fathers are not involved in their children’s lives, the higher risk of adolescents participating in the use of intense…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In his Theory of Moral Sentiment, Adam Smith said, "Man ought to regard himself, not as something separated and detached, but as a citizen of the world, a member of the vast commonwealth of nature and to the interest of this great community, he ought at all times to be willing that his own little interest should be sacrificed." These words should ring loud and clear in the ears of alcohol and tobacco marketing professionals. However, it seems more likely that their desire to increase their own wealth surpasses any thoughts of moral responsibility to children. This is evident in a quote taken from a Phillip Morris marketing report that reads, “The ability to attract new smokers and develop them into a young adult franchise is important to brand development.” The explosion of high-tech media and advertising today requires regulations to keep the products in appropriate places to minimize the influence of alcohol and tobacco on children.…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Do you know that experts agree it is a proved reality that second hand smoke can be as unsafe to individuals breathing it within their lungs as smoking is to the guy who engages in the health injuring habit? The majority of smokers do not really believe about this, but it can be true! Older people have got a choice if to get along with those that is smoking and can remove themselves from the circumstance if needed. Nonetheless, small children may not have this choice, specifically if members of their household smoke around them.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some adults who smoke, do not realize that their children are getting affected by them. Gene Emery believes that the advertising is to blame. I am agreeing with him, but we should not also forget the family actions in front of their children. In order to prevent our children to smoke, we should start at home. The parents have a great responsibility to act right in front of their kids like put out the cigarette they see their child coming through the door or to try to even stop smoking. I was raised with a family that does not smoke. We are eight girls and one boy and still none of us smoke till now because my family knew how to act and set the perfect role model for us. I am trying to do the same thing for my two boys. I tell them that "smoking is awful and it makes you sick and die" and whenever they see somebody smoking they say that "this person is stupid because he is hurting himself". The laws in this country protects our children; in order for oneself to buy any tobacco, they have to be 18 years of age or older. There is also an agreement to stop promoting cigarettes to children. This agreement was passed in 1998. Attached to this paper is the lawsuit to control tobacco companies. Also, attached to this paper is an article that differs the US laws with other country like Australia and Britain. In my country, the government supports tobacco companies. Ad's are placed everywhere about tobacco's,…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    persuasive outline

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    a. Karl Hill, a research associate professor at the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group states, “If your parents were smokers it is a double whammy because you are more likely to use drugs in general and even more likely to…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays