Mere hours after police said that the story of 6-year-old Falcon Heene drifting away in a silver balloon was a hoax, Americans began clamoring for his parents' blood. The Heenes' alleged act of concocting a phony crisis makes them eligible for felony charges. But for the heartsick millions who watched that silver egg float away, it wouldn't be enough to send Richard Heene to jail. We are convinced he and his wife, Mayumi, should lose their children as well. (Click here to follow Dahlia Lithwick)
No fit parent, some contend, could subject his children to a life of chasing dementedly after hurricanes, vying to appear on reality shows, and colluding in a national fraud. Online polls revealed a belief that these children are abuse victims. Pundits everywhere weighed in to say that there is already ample cause to remove the kids: former prosecutor Wendy Murphy told CBS News last week that "all they have to have is evidence of neglect or abuse…And, boy, I think they've got plenty of that here."
The impulse to remove innocent children from their stupid parents simply because their parents are stupid is a strong one. But it sweeps broadly and often irrevocably. Was the Octomom showing good judgment when she had herself implanted with eight embryos she had neither the financial nor emotional resources to support? Do the preposterous Jon and Kate Gosselin really believe their children have thrived as a consequence of having their every burp and sniffle broadcast to millions of viewers? A clutch of children's-rights advocates and many outraged Americans argue that any parent who agrees to put a small child on a reality show should be, by definition, a child abuser. But our legal system doesn't agree. Despite data that show what happens to child stars, current laws are concerned only with protecting young celebrities' finances and making sure they stay on the right side of child-labor rules. Being willing to do virtually anything for fame and money isn't a crime in America. It's a vocation.
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