If the government intrudes to this degree in the family life, then I say that the now impotent parent should have the right to just dump the child onto the government and let them raise them.

I was whipped as a child and while I certainly did not like it, I know it did no damage to me and quite likely helped me not do even dumber things than I did do!

Yes my home was bad, but not because of whippings. It was bad because my father was abused very badly as a child (basically hated and treated as a slave) and no law could make my family into something it was not able to be.
My mother had her own issues and was perhaps the worst person my father could have married.

And what alternatives were there? Would I have been better off bundled elsewhere by the state?

I wouldn't want to bet on it!

Good parents bad parents, they must have the right to be parents unless they are causing willful permanent physical injury!