Monica Lewinsky has written a serious op-ed article in the Los Angeles Times for Mother's Day, Tell Mama All About It? Not Without a Lawyer, in which she argues for the creation of a parent-child privilege.

Few people are aware that, in our country, parents can be forced to testify against their children and vice versa; there is no parent-child privilege under the aegis of the federal government. We have a husband-wife privilege, a doctor-patient privilege, an attorney-client privilege and even a privilege between priest and penitent. But no comparable confidential boundary is recognized for parent and child.

All of these existing privileges place value on certain relationships in order to foster and then protect them. Their inviolability is deemed more important than the truth-finding function of the courts. Isn't the parent-child relationship every bit as important, if not more so?

Monica is right. Parent-child communications should be legally protected in the same way as communications between a person and her religious advisor, psychiatrist, attorney or spouse. The need for trust and open communication between parent and child is one of the most basic and fundamental values in our society.

Courts have traditionally held that it is up to the legislature to enact a parent-child privilege. Congress and state legislatures need should enact a statute that protects a parent from being forced to testify in any official proceeding as to what his or her child told the parent in confidence, unless the child expressly agrees to the disclosure. Similarly, the law should protect a child from having to testify against his or her own parent.

Exceptions should be built into the statute where the communication was made in the presence of others (and therefore not confidential,) or in furtherance of a crime by both parent and child or in any case in which the child is a victim of violence or abuse.

Thanks, Monica.