Your hyperbolic snark misses the fact that children are in fact helpless to defend themselves against abusive and neglectful parents, and thus the state needs to fill that role.<p>We agree that the state sometimes oversteps the role (one or two cases of children who walked to school being aggressively pursued by child protection social workers per year) but it&#x27;s frustrating that you ignore the hundreds of deaths (4 per day) caused by abusive or neglectful parents, and the many thousands of deaths caused by carelessness.<p>In 2008 about 1,700 children died as a result of abuse or neglect.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.childwelfare.gov&#x2F;topics&#x2F;systemwide&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;can&#x2F;stat-fatalities&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.childwelfare.gov&#x2F;topics&#x2F;systemwide&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;ca...</a>