The 3-year-old in the shopping cart launches into a wild tantrum, and his parents warn him he's about to get a "time-out."

Meanwhile, the mother in the next aisle silences her misbehaving tot with a whack to the behind.

To spank or not to spank? Many doctors and researchers say don't — spanked children grow up to be angry, abusive adults. But surveys say four parents in five turn to spanking at least occasionally, and some parents' rights groups believe mom and dad should be left to make that decision.

The American Academy for Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association all firmly oppose spanking — a position that has been widely accepted, adopted and reinforced in the United States since pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock's anti-spanking teachings revolutionized parenting more than three decades ago.

"Children need greater protection against assault and battery than any other class of citizen," said Jordan Riak, founder of Project No Spank in Oakland, Calif. "They are the class of people who are most vulnerable to physical and psychological damage when battered, and they are the ones we don't protect."

But Marvin Munyon, director of the Family Research Forum, a state lobby in Madison, Wisc., said the anti-spanking group has muddled safe, controlled, effective spanking with all other forms of child abuse, robbing parents of the right to discipline their children.

"There is a whole generation of young people who are without discipline because of Dr. Spock's teachings," said Munyon, a father of three grown children who advocates spanking in situations of extreme bad behavior.

Munyon narrowly defines acceptable spanking as a limited number of wallops with a light paddle on a child's clothed buttocks. "It's not slapping, hitting, beating or punching," explained Munyon.

Just a few weeks ago, Munyon tripped a cultural fuse when he presented a seminar on the "Biblical Discipline of Children" at the Eau Claire Gospel Center in Eau Claire, Wisc. The presentation included discussion of the importance of building parent-child relationships, and a demonstration of Munyon's careful spanking technique. Munyon said he has since been deluged with requests to appear on national radio and television to defend his position.

For example, Munyon teaches that spanking is not appropriate for every situation and every child.

"A parent needs to be in control and calm. When a parent spanks out of rage, then they are the ones out of hand," said Munyon.

But anti-spankers like Riak say a child's rights should come before a parent's.

"It is a human rights issue. Children are human beings and need to be recognized as such," said Riak, a father of two grown sons who has been campaigning against spanking in California for 25 years.

According to three reports — a 1998 American Academy of Pediatrics study, a 1995 Harris Poll, and a separate study in California — 80 to 90 percent of parents say they resort to spanking their kids.

In terms of the law, the U.S. likes its parental rights.

Last year, the Oklahoma State Legislature amended their child abuse laws with a bill that explicitly granted parents the right to use paddles and switches to spank their children. The bill was enacted reportedly in response to the Columbine High School killings in Littleton, Colo., and to broaden the rights Oklahoma parents already had to spank their children under current laws. Nevada passed a similar law.

In Virginia, the Board of Social Services adopted new regulations in July that would make sure foster parents were not turned away because they believed in corporal punishment, said Sonny Riviero, the Virginia commissioner of Social Services. Child advocates are campaigning to have the regulations repealed before they take affect in November.

The courts also seem to be slanting toward parental rights. A California court recently ruled a social worker violated the Fourth Amendment rights of a couple when, acting on a telephone tip reporting abuse, the social worker stormed the home without a warrant.

This August, in a case dealing not with abuse but with grandparent visitation, the Supreme Court issued a sweeping decision in favor of parental rights in determining how best to raise children. Unless a parent is proven to be unfit, the court ruled that parents should have broad authority to raise their kids without outside interference.