Recent stories in the news, such as, a mother choking her daughter's alleged bully in a  mall or a father taking a baseball bat to a store that reportedly sold bath salts to his son, have sparked debate on how far a parent show go to protect their child.

On Thursday night, both HLN’s Dr. Drew and his guest psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz agreed that when somebody hurts their child, the parental instinct is primitive.

Dr. Saltz expressed,  “As painful and emotional as it is, you can help your child best if you can step back and use your analytic head to say, ‘What can I do to stop this child? I need to call the school. I need to call the parent of this child. I need to call law enforcement’.”

Attorney Mark Eiglarsh added, "There's something different than protecting your precious offspring …versus committing an act of retaliation."

Watch the full clip in the video player above.

Dr. Drew airs Monday through Thursday on HLN at 9 p.m. ET.  Be sure to follow the show on Facebook and Twitter @DrDrewHLN.