Prevention is the key to
curbing child abuseThe issue: As child abuse increases in
Hawaii, law enforcement authorities propose
longer prison terms and tougher laws.IF the incidents of child abuse in Hawaii are to be reduced, efforts should be aimed at prevention. Calls for more stringent laws to punish abusers attack the problem's aftermath, when damage to a child is already done. Tax dollars spent on incarceration would be better used to avert the abuse in the first place and on providing treatment for victims.
Child abuse in Hawaii has reached unprecedented levels and authorities fear the numbers will increase with growing unemployment and stress brought on by the state's economic difficulties. Child Protective Services investigations on Oahu have gone from 130 cases a month last year to 200 a month this year. Statewide, cases in the first half of 2001 alone totaled 2,147, compared with 3,442 for all of last year.
City prosecutors want tougher penalties to punish abusers, contending that the only Hawaii laws that deal specifically with child abuse involve pornography. All other child abuse violations fall under a misdemeanor crime for abuse of a household member, according to Glenn Kim, head of the prosecutor's domestic violence unit. However, prosecutors may charge an alleged child abuser with first-degree assault, a felony where there is serious bodily injury. Further, the law provides harsher prison terms when the victim is frail and young.
Prosecutors argue that charging an alleged abuser under the felony law is a problem because sexual assault is not considered serious bodily injury. In that case, the matter can be resolved by amending the present statute to include sexual assault.
Meanwhile, police officials want greater sanctions placed on women who abuse drugs while pregnant. Such measures, however, serve only to punish rather than treat drug addiction, a method that has been shown to be ineffective.
The cyclical nature of child abuse and domestic violence can be broken by providing families with help. However, social services programs are often short changed. While the number of child abuse cases have sharply increased, Child Protective Services, the state agency that investigates and deals with reports of child abuse, has not had one employee added to its payroll. Counseling for parents and treatment for children are often left to private organizations funded through donations and grants.
Longer prison terms or tougher laws aren't deterrents to child abuse. "The best way to prevent and reduce" abuse of children, according to Susan Chandler, director of state human services, "is to push services way up earlier and help families."
Compromise to allow
medical researchThe issue: Advances in creating human
embryos have heightened opposition to
stem-cell research for therapeutic purposes.THE scientific importance of a Massachusetts' company's claim to advances in producing human embryos through cloning is questionable. The claim was overblown, and so was the reaction. The government should continue its efforts to develop a cautious policy that recognizes the peril of reproductive cloning and the potential value of creating embryonic stem cells for use in treating diseases.
President Bush announced in August that the federal government would pay for experiments using colonies of stem cells that already had been developed from embryos discarded from fertilization. That policy did not affect privately-funded research.
Advanced Cell Technology, a small, Worcester, Mass., firm, announced Sunday that it had taken the first steps in producing human embryos through cloning. However, all of the embryos died, and the techniques were the same as those used on animals.
Former University of Hawaii scientist Tony Perry, now with Advanced Cell Technology, suggested that cloning of mice at the Manoa lab resulted from lengthy practice in manipulating microscopic cells. "It requires a kind of eye-hand coordination," he said. "If you lapse in your practice for two weeks, you don't return to point zero, but you're a bit rusty."
Ryuzo Yanagimachi, head of the research team at the UH Institute for Biogenesis Research, concluded in July that reproductive cloning of humans is fraught with insurmountable risk. However, Yanagimachi pointed out that stem cells remain potentially valuable in treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, heart problems, diabetes and other ailments.
Advanced Cell Technology wants to use what is called therapeutic cloning technology to create specialized stem cells that could be used to grow tissues with characteristics identical to the body tissues of the person to be treated. That would overcome the risk of another person's body tissue being rejected.
The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban all human cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic. The Senate rejected such a proposed ban in 1998.
President Bush condemned the work done by Advanced Cell Technology and has voiced his support for a total ban on human cloning. Such a ban is proper for reproductive cloning, but efforts should be made to achieve a compromise, with strong safeguards, that would allow therapeutic research to go forward.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
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