Questions derail child-medical measure

Too many what-if questions and vague answers kept a bill from reaching the Senate floor that would have let parents overrule a doctor when determining medical treatment for their child.

SB90, filed in the wake of last summer's Parker Jensen custody case, is stalled for now after separate 4-4 votes the Senate Health and Humans Services Committee wouldn't endorse the bill or return it to the Senate Rules Committee for interim study.

Wednesday's inaction may signal the direction the Utah Legislature is willing to take — or not — on the road to forcing changes in the state's child welfare.

"I think there is the recognition of the need to be careful," said House Majority Whip Jeff Alexander, R-Orem. "You cannot move too quickly and make changes that are not necessary."

As of Thursday, there were 27 bills that had been approved and filed on child-welfare issues, and more are expected today, which is the deadline for lawmakers to file their bill requests.

Alexander said once those bills are made available, a group of lawmakers will meet and decide what direction the body could or should take on the issue of reform.

"We have to make sure we are getting information from both sides of the equation so that we make good decisions," he said. "It would be easy to go off in one direction this year and make wholesale changes, but that is not what we are wanting to do."

Wednesday's votes on SB90 disappointed one of the lawmakers arguing for change.

"Parental rights have taken a knife," the bill's sponsor, Sen. David Thomas, R-South Weber, said afterward. "The real question is who makes the decision, the state or the parent. Right now, parents are at a disadvantage."

SB90 would allow "conscientious" parents who had not been previously charged with child abuse to determine how to treat their sick or injured child, even if it directly conflicted with professional medical advice.

"It switches the presumption back to the parents," Thomas said.

Other child welfare measures have had better success, but they have taken tiny snips at the system, not a huge bite.

They include:

• HB168, sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, R-Provo, which would require parties in child welfare proceedings to share information via written reports in advance of a court hearing.