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Reasonable and clearly defined punishments that include spanking as the "nuclear option" are part of a parent's toolkit.
Child rearing is hard. I've been doing it for 24 years straight now with four kids.
Kids are different and don't respond the same to punishments. What works for one may not work for another.
Barring cases of abuse, I believe it's wrong to armchair quarterback parents raising their kids in the best way they know how.
Most of Europe has been getting along fine without physically hitting their children for discipline. Parents should not be teaching their children that pain compliance is an acceptable method for getting what they want.
Look, I agree that the state should have a lot of leeway in letting parents decide what is best for their children. But in and of itself, spanking is the direct use of physical harm (the fact people even split straws on whether or not it causes "lasting damage" is really the wrong question to be asking) to a child to get your way, whether you feel it's justified or not. And there is this reflexive defense of it because it's just this completely weirdly ritualized punishment where people have completely distanced themselves from the idea that while yes, they are inflicting physical pain upon their children, they've made themselves comfortable with the idea because it's a traditional parenting method.
I know a lot of people who were physically abused as children and became screwed up adults as a result of it.
I know a lot of people who were never physically disciplined as children and became screwed up adults as a result of it.
I know many people who were occasionally (1-10 times) disciplined as children and became great adults.
As a result? Who knows? But the line doesn't seem to be 0 vs >0.
He got to see what would happen.
And you know what? He never did anything like that again.
I don't think that spanking should be a go-to punishment, but in some cases, especially those involving high danger, a small child needs to have a fundamental fear of breaking certain rules.
I'd rather have to give a child a spanking for trying to run out into the road than to have a dead child and some sort of moral superiority.