Many others have found comfort in allowing eighteen-year-olds to legally drink. Many of those same countries allow underage drinkers to consume alcohol so long as it is in the presence of an adult of legal age. In the United Kingdom, underage drinking is permitted in restaurants, where it is a controlled environment (Jacobsen, 7C). Many European countries, such as Spain and France, have the legal drinking age at set at sixteen, whereas college students must wait until eighteen to obtain a driver's license (Jacobsen, 7C). These cultures openly accept alcohol as a part of both society and life. By incorporating alcohol into an everyday environment for the child, it becomes natural to learn when and how to drink. Perhaps the first time a child experiences chocolate, he or she chooses to over-indulge, and the result is an upset stomach and an unhappy child. Obviously, the child will once again indulge in chocolate, conceivably in a more moderate fashion. It should be evident that trying to eradicate alcoholism from society "straying away from future advances in genetic technology - would be an impossible task. Adopting to a society similar to the ones that have a more lackadaisical approach toward drinking would release the responsibilities of the government, responsibilities beyond governmental control, and place them in the parents of these children.
As parents, what responsibilities, if any, arise when governing a household in which alcohol consumption is accepted among all members of the family? It would obviously then be up to the parents to develop their own "drinking age- policy. More importantly, it is up to the parents to teach their children about the nature of alcohol. In eliminating the legal drinking age, parents are given a chance to incorporate their own protocols for children to follow. It is much safer for a child's first experience with alcohol to be at home in a controlled environment, rather than with three other college students in an unsupervised, isolated environment.
