Canary in the Mine

Men could be forced to undergo DNA testing to see if they are a child's parent under a rejig of parenthood laws proposed by the Law Commission. The proposed changes, which aim to define and clarify the legal role of parent, would also extend a presumption of parenthood to men in a wider range of relationships than is currently the case and tighten up the law around surrogacy and in vitro fertilisation. The proposals are included in a report titled New Issues in Legal Parenthood, tabled in Parliament this morning.

The chief executive of the Families Commission has left the job after just five months because of differences over the way she and the commissioners thought the operation should be run.

The Family Law Section of the New Zealand Law Society has is recommending to the government that section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, which permits smacking, should be repealed.
Simon Maude, the Family Law Section Chair, says: "The Section believes that careful consideration needs to be given to the development of law that does not sanction the use of violence by parents in the correction of their children... children are entitled to expect the law to protect them. The courts, parents and children need law that is clear and descriptive as to what is permissible and what is not, in order to provide that protection."
Note: What the Law Society ignores is that the law already provides exactly that protection, as demonstrated by New Plymouth District Court Judge Bidois, who last week sentenced a parent who smacked his son so hard, after the boy soiled his pants, that he was described as being "extensively" bruised. The judge showed that the law can clearly distinguish between appropriate discipline and violence.)

The first gay couple to be married in France lost an appeals court battle on Tuesday to have their union legally recognized but vowed to keep on fighting.

Korea is the latest Asian country to look at incentives to encourage couples to have more children.

Corporate reformers, pumping millions of dollars into charter schools and voucher systems, are ignoring the real revolution in education - homeschooling - says the Reason weblog.
Estimates of the number of children being home-schooled in the USA range up to 2-million.

The great issue for Pope Benedict XVI is the one that he set out in his remarkable sermon at the preconclave Mass in St Peter’s, writes Daniel Johnson in The Times. Does he wish to lead the Church down the primrose path of secularism, following the Christian heartlands of Europe in their descent into moral relativism, or does he intend to turn towards the new missionary Church of Latin America, Africa and Asia, to reaffirm the faith of Christ, the faith of St Peter, the faith of John Paul II? What the fight against communism was for John Paul II, the fight against rampant secularism will be for Benedict XVI.

Tail-out: The latest entrant into the expanded Super-14 Rugby competition is doomed to bottom of the heap, if the psycho-babble surrounding the release of its name and logo is anything to go by. The other teams will fall about laughing over the likes of this:
"The name [Western Force] best represents a strong, energetic and inclusive rugby team that has a solid connection to the state's ideals", went the PR blurb. "It represents the natural elements that have shaped the state of Western Australia - the waves, the heat and the wind, and the minerals and resources that have underpinned its economic strength." The logo features a black swan in "a dynamic circular shape, representing the unity and inclusiveness that the team will bring to the WA community". The colours are "a mid-blue that represents Western Australia's beautiful coastline and clear blue skies, while a sandy gold represents [its] stunning beaches, mineral wealth and the ever-present sunshine". As an unnamed correspondent remarks drily, try thinking about that when you're at the bottom of a ruck.