Who Decides Religious Upbringing?
A recent case saw a clash between the rights of divorced parents. A couple divorced, and the wife was given custody of their child. When her ex-husband began to take their daughter to his church during his visitation periods, she asked the Illinois court to prohibit him from doing so. She contended that she had an exclusive right as the custodial parent to control the religious upbringing of her child.
The court refused to grant the wife's request. Although it recognized her right to raise the child in her church, it also noted that Illinois law gave the child's father the unrestricted right to visit his daughter without interference from his ex-wife. Although the child's parents went to different churches, the court found that the mother had not shown that there were any major differences between the churches. Therefore, the child's attendance at her father's church would not interfere with her religious upbringing.
The court also rejected the mother's contention that being forced to go to two churches would confuse the child, noting that the child had already been attending both churches for almost three years.
Prescription Records Are/Are Not Private
Both the State of Illinois and the federal government have recently passed laws to protect the privacy of a patient's medical records. The interplay between these confidentiality laws and the general rules governing lawsuits is still being worked out, as a recent case demonstrates.
The case involved a divorce. The husband subpoenaed the prescription records of his wife from three pharmacies, and the wife sought to have her records kept confidential. Relying on the provisions of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act, an Illinois law making a patient's mental health records confidential in most circumstances, the court ruled that the records could not be released. Although the Act does not specifically mention pharmacy records, the court found that pharmacies were agents of the doctors whose prescriptions they filled. The court reasoned that if a party could acquire information from a pharmacy that it could not obtain from a doctor, patients might be reluctant to fill their prescriptions.
Note: This decision may not be the final word. In May, the Illinois Supreme Court allowed a further appeal of the question. This appeal should finally settle the matter.
