[Dottie]

I'm firmly against spanking in any circumstance for the following reasons:

One of the big problems with assuring the safety and health of children is that the core family is a very closed unit. It's hard for anyone to oversee what goes on inside. If spanking is illegal, and never used by most healthy parents it would mean that any sign that a child have been exposed to physical violence is a reason for further investigation. If spanking is legal and many healthy parents uses it as a discipline method then it gets harder to detect the cases where children are severely abused.

In addition to this I believe a more relaxed attitude towards physical punishment might blur the line between discipline and abuse for more insecure and psychologically unhealthy parents.