Parental Licensing as Harm Reduction
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Parental Licensing as Harm Reduction Liam Shields1 Accepted: 29 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract In this paper, I will argue that some prominent objections to parental licensing rely on dubious claims about the existence of a very stringent, if not indefeasible, right to parent, which would be violated by licensing. I claim that attaching such stringency to the right only makes sense if we make a number of idealising assumptions. Otherwise, it is deeply implausible. Instead, I argue that we should evaluate parental licensing policies in much the same way we would harm reduction policies. By adopting this critical perspective, we can see that there are powerful, but quite different, reasons to be cautious about parental licensing relating to our ability to minimize the harmful effects of mass-parenting in a world of minimal surveillance and intervention. Keywords Harm reduction · Parental licensing · Parents’ rights · Children’s welfare
Introduction Advocates of parental licensing believe that competency in parenting should be demonstrated prior to the allocation of full legal parental rights.1 These rights generally include permissions to exclude others from interacting with the child, to decide where the child lives and is schooled, and other rights that it is necessary for a guardian to have in order to meet the child’s needs. However, parents’ legal rights and social status provide them with opportunities to abuse, neglect or otherwise seriously harm the children in their care. In many contemporary societies, 1 LaFollette, Hugh. "Licensing parents." Philosophy & Public Affairs Vol. 9, No. 2 (1980): 182–197; Mangel, Claudia Pap. "Licensing parents: How feasible?." Family law quarterly (1988): 17–39 Vopat, Mark. "Parent licensing and the protection of children." In Samantha Brennan and Robert Noggle ed.s Taking Responsibility for Children (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007): 73–96; Westman, Jack C. Licensing parents: Can we prevent child abuse and neglect?. Da Capo Press, 2007.
* Liam Shields [email protected] 1
University of Manchester, 4.027, Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M139PL, UK
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Health Care Analysis
surveillance measures and checks on parental competence are used at various stages, in particular by health and education professionals, but that surveillance and intervention is kept to a minimum. The putative justifying aim of parental licensing is to minimize parental child abuse and inadequate parenting consistent with the status quo of limited surveillance and intervention in the family.2 After all, there are good reasons for maintaining limited surveillance: parenting well requires a measure of discretion, authority and intimacy all of which are arguably inconsistent with very close surveillance from agents who can override parental decisions. In this paper, I will argue that some prominent objections to parental licensing rely on dubious claims about the existence of a very stringent right to parent, which would be violate
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