Conscious choice or endangering children? Conflicting views on a Belgian report denouncing the vegan diet of children – RT World News



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A recent report from the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine sparked a debate that it was "unethical" to raise children to plant life. RT has heard different points of view about the potentially dangerous choice of parents.

Herbal foods lack protein and essential amino acids and can therefore delay growth and cause health problems for children, said a doctor in an informed legal opinion released last week. Highly vegan children should be subject to constant supervision and require additional dietary intake to avoid deficiencies. Such as "Destabilizing regime" is therefore "Unethical to impose on children" the report argued.

The opinion was made at the request of a government official following a number of cases in which children were faced with complications, including critical health problems, after the transition to a vegan diet, according to the daily newspaper Le Soir. The report could result in changes to the law. Forcing children to abandon animal protein could be legally qualified as "No assistance to a person in danger" A crime that carries a prison sentence of up to two years in Belgium, said Professor Georges Casimir, one of the authors of the report.

Should parents be punished for imposing their eating philosophy on their children, even though it could potentially have serious consequences? According to Jon Gaunt, radio host and columnist, no moral belief can justify any potential harm to minors. "Children should not be forced to do it. There have been deaths in Belgium, so you can understand why the state is concerned, Said Gaunt.




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Sanctions are not a solution for Dr. Myriam van Winckel, pediatrician at Ghent University Hospital. Parents should be informed, however, that "The more restrictions you use, the more you risk deficiencies," she told RT. The greatest risk comes from the shortage of vitamin B12 because its active form is absent from plant foods. Also called cobalamin, vitamin B12 is necessary for the proper formation of red blood cells and for the synthesis of DNA. Its deficiency "May cause irreversible damage to the neurological system", the doctor said.




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In the meantime, several vegan groups have criticized the report, stating that a balanced plant diet can promote healthy living for all ages. Parents who have chosen a vegan lifestyle have the right to raise their children according to their moral convictions, explained Jeanette Rowley, a lawyer at the Vegan Society. Nevertheless, she believes that cases of child neglect "Must be treated very precisely" regardless of the ethical orientation of the parents.

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