Parental Interests and the Right to Procreate

Rj Leland (Australian National University)

Abstract: Lots of philosophers think that adults' interest in raising a child can give them a moral right to parent, at least when they'll be adequate parents. I'll consider whether the same interest could give adults a moral right to procreate, as a means of acquiring a child to raise. I'll argue that the interest in parenting can’t support a right to procreate, because the features of childhood that make it especially good for adults to be parents also make childhood bad for children. These features are: impaired practical reasoning, subjection to legitimate domination, extreme vulnerability, and lack of a stable practical identity. The fact that parents' enjoyment of a special relationship with children is essentially bound up with children's subjection to these bad states undercuts any support that the interest in parenting could lend to the right to procreate. Some adults may (or may not) have a right to procreate, but they don't have that right in light of their interest in parenting.