A rock and a hard place? Ministry of Defence | Defence News | MOD confirms loss of recruitment data

[Ian Batten]

On 19 Feb 08, at 0020, James Cox wrote:
>
> Where parents nor spouses exist, the duty of kin falls to the  
> nearest relative; a child old enough to take on that responsibility  
> in the case of an elderly patient, or a grandparent or uncle/aunt  
> for an infant without parents.

Uncles and aunts have no `duty' of kin, because no-one does for  
adults, parents, spouses and children included: if the phone rings  
and I'm told that my mother/daughter/brother is ill, I am perfectly  
within my rights to put the phone down, and there may be all sorts of  
reasons why that might be perfectly reasonable.  Even  if it's  
unreasonable, it's not a `duty' and I am quite entitled to be  
unreasonable.  As an adult I am not responsible for any of my kin  
other than, in some strictly defined circumstances, my own children.

There are people who might have RIGHTS as kin, in certain tightly  
defined cases, but that's highly unlikely to include uncles and aunts  
absent indications from the parents of the child (I've appointed my  
brother and sister-in-law as guardians in event of my death, and made  
provision for my estate to fund their raising my children: you don't  
do this without the family conference to end all family  
conferences).  Grandparents have no rights over children, as endless  
sob stories in the Torygraph will attest (for example, after a  
divorce, the parents of the non-custody parents are often left right  
out in the cold, to their distress).  It's possible that you have a  
right to be consulted in the case of your own minor children, but  
that's about the end of it.

>
> Ian (et al), you know all this, so i suspect our argument is moot.

I suspect I've been involved in more of the scenarios than you.

ian