Why is child abuse illegal, but hitting a child while spanking him/her is legal? Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver causes injury or emotional harm to a child. Spanking a child hard enough could cause serious negative repercussions. Also even if the child stops throwing a temper tantrum because he/she got spanked, does not mean the child understands why he/she shouldn’t be acting out in the first place. Susan Bitensky tries to make the point that spanking should be illegal in the New York daily news article “Yes, America we can ban spanking.” Although the contention of her paper is excellent she does not prove her point well because she uses logical fallacies, lacks evidence and does not include a counter argument. In the article Susan
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The article begins by telling the story of Adrian Peterson’s abuse of his son. She proclaims “ Adrian Peterson’s thrashing of his son was injurious and severe enough to be criminal child abuse.” By using the adjectives injurious and severe she is trying to make you feel an emotional response about a young boy being abused, instead of just stating the facts about why people should not spank their children. The writer wants you to support her argument so she thinks by making you feel sad you will agree with her opinions on spanking. The problem with using this fallacy is pity or sympathy do not serve as evidence for a claim. Therefore, this means that just because the reader feels pity for Adrian’s son does not mean the author’s beliefs on spanking are true. The author also uses the logical fallacy of Straw Man. She writes “America has not kept pace. Each of the 50 states has laws that make parental physical child abuse illegal while simultaneously making so-called reasonable parental corporal punishment of children legal.” Susan blames America for allowing spanking to occur, she thinks they should pass laws to make it illegal. That is a straw man because instead of attacking the parents who spank their children, she attacks the easier target of America and its lawmaking
The article begins by telling the story of Adrian Peterson’s abuse of his son. She proclaims “ Adrian Peterson’s thrashing of his son was injurious and severe enough to be criminal child abuse.” By using the adjectives injurious and severe she is trying to make you feel an emotional response about a young boy being abused, instead of just stating the facts about why people should not spank their children. The writer wants you to support her argument so she thinks by making you feel sad you will agree with her opinions on spanking. The problem with using this fallacy is pity or sympathy do not serve as evidence for a claim. Therefore, this means that just because the reader feels pity for Adrian’s son does not mean the author’s beliefs on spanking are true. The author also uses the logical fallacy of Straw Man. She writes “America has not kept pace. Each of the 50 states has laws that make parental physical child abuse illegal while simultaneously making so-called reasonable parental corporal punishment of children legal.” Susan blames America for allowing spanking to occur, she thinks they should pass laws to make it illegal. That is a straw man because instead of attacking the parents who spank their children, she attacks the easier target of America and its lawmaking