Кипит социо-гуманитарная мысль в Humanities Department’ах.

In Licensing Parents, Michael McFall argues that political structures, economics, education, racism, and sexism are secondary in importance to the inequality caused by families, and that the family plays the primary role in a child’s acquisition of a sense of justice. He demonstrates that examination of the family is necessary in political philosophy and that informal structures (families) and considerations (character formation) must be taken seriously. McFall advocates a threshold that should be accepted by all political philosophers: children should not be severely abused or neglected because child maltreatment often causes deep and irreparable individual and societal harm. The implications of this threshold are revolutionary, but this is not recognized fully because no philosophical book has systematically considered the ethical or political ramifications of child maltreatment. By exposing a tension between the rights of children and adults, McFall reveals pervasive ageism; parental rights usually trump children’s rights, and this is often justified because children are not fully autonomous. Yet parental rights should not always trump children’s rights. Ethics and political philosophy are not only about rights, but also about duties – especially when considering potential parents who are unable or unwilling to provide minimally decent nurturance. While contemporary political philosophy focuses on adult rights, McFall examines systems whereby the interests and rights of children and parents are better balanced. This entails exploring when parental rights are defeasible and defending the ethics of licensing parents, whereby some people are precluded from rearing children. He argues that, if a sense of justice is largely developed in childhood, parents directly influence the character of future generations of adults in political society. A completely stable and well-ordered society needs stable and psychologically healthy citizens in addition to just laws, and McFall demonstrates how parental love and healthy families can help achieve this.

Michael T. McFall is a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Introduction to Humanities Department at Stanford University.

Из рецензии, к сожалению, непонятно, кто именно по мысли автора будет лицензировать родителей, разрешать им иметь детей и контролировать качество воспитания правильных членов общества. Хватит ли для этого имеющихся сил ювенальной юстиции и социальной службы, или придется организовать десяток-другой новых агентств?

Или вот сборник статей, рассматривающих проблему в комплексе:

Does everyone have the right to have children? Should contraception ever be mandatory? Should prenatal abuse be criminalized?

In this informative and thought-provoking collection of articles, experts from the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, law, political science, public health, sociology, and anthropology consider the issues involved in the debate over whether controls of any sort should be placed on the birthing and raising of children. Following a thorough introduction to these issues, editor Peg Tittle presents the contributions in three major sections.

The first part focuses on the nurturing aspect of parenting, presenting several proposals for licensing. It then takes a closer look at the problem of assessing nurturing skills, drawing on work done in the areas of custody, adoption, and new reproductive technologies.

The second part considers the reproductive element of parenting, exploring the moral acceptability of passing on genetic disease, as well as the ethical implications of genetic engineering.

The third part examines in greater detail objections and replies to the concept of licensing parents, including parenting as a right and the role of legislation.

Надо бы ознакомиться поближе с этим дискурсом. Очень прогрессивно там у них дела обстоят, почти как в начале прошлого века. Того и гляди евгенику введут.

via Instapundit