The Legislature Tuesday passed a bill aimed at curbing what would appear to be an epidemic of child abuse in the commonwealth.

According to statistics compiled by a special legislative committee established last year, the state Department of Social Services receives some 70,000 reports of suspected abuse each year. More incredibly, some 8,000 children per year are removed from their homes by social workers.

Legislators' concerns are understandable and their effort to address the problem laudable. Unfortunately, there's no law that can be written to mandate responsible parenting.

For the very day the compromise bill was approved on Beacon Hill, The Salem News carried the tragic story of 8-year-old Jeremy Fraser, who, according to police and the district attorney's office, was deprived of potentially lifesaving medication by his mother. Where once he was given an 85-to-90-percent chance of recovery from his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, doctors now say his case is terminal and he may not live to see his 9th birthday next month.

As of yesterday morning, neither Kristen Ann LaBrie of Beverly nor her lawyer were commenting on the charge of child endangerment on which she was arraigned in Salem District Court this week. But accusations against both LaBrie and her ex-husband were flying on this newspaper's online comment board and in other forums.

What is known is that LaBrie, 36, had previously lost custody of a son, now 16, and relinquished custody of Jeremy to his father last April.

Salem police report numerous encounters with LaBrie when she was living in that city, including one instance in September 2006 in which officers found Jeremy, who is also autistic, wandering on Jackson Street some two blocks from where he and his mother were then living.

Most horrific of all is the contention by prosecutors that LaBrie had failed to have prescriptions filled and to bring her son to scheduled appointments with doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital after he was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2006.

In addition to the creation of an interagency task force to streamline DSS response to reports of child abuse and neglect, the new bill increases the penalty for failure by "mandated reporters" — doctors, social workers, teachers, etc. — to report cases of abuse to the proper authorities.

In Jeremy's case, it was his doctor who first reported to DSS his suspicions that the child was not receiving the prescribed treatments at home. And it was that same doctor who had to tell Jeremy's father, Eric Fraser of Saugus, that as a result of his not receiving the medication, his son was now dying.

In this case, the system worked but not in time to save little Jeremy. Legislators say they hope the new law will speed up response times and otherwise improve the system's effectiveness.

"There's no greater task before us than (protecting) the most vulnerable children, the most vulnerable people in our society," House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi told the Statehouse News Service this week. And he called the new law, which resulted from more than a year of study and extensive negotiations between the House and Senate, one of the defining issues of his four-year speakership.

Sadly, however, all the laws and good intentions in the world can't counter the effects of neglectful parenting.