Should Parents be Licensed? Debating the Issues

372 Pages·2004·12.96 MB·English

by  Peg Tittle (ed.)

SHOULD PARENTS BE
LICENSED?
DEBATING THE ISSUES
edited by PEG TITTLE

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SHOULD PARENTS BE
LICENSED?
Contemporary Issues
Series Editors: Robert M. Baird
Stuart E. Rosenbaum
Volumes edited by Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum
unless otherwise noted.
Affirmative Action: Social Justice The Gun Control Debate: You Decide
or Reverse Discrimination? (Second edition) edited by Lee Nisbet
edited by Francis J. Beckwith
Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice:
and Todd E. Jones
Definitions, Causes, and Solutions
Animal Experimentation: The Moral Issues
Homosexuality: Debating the Issues
Are You Politically Correct?: edited by Robert M. Baird
Debating America's Cultural Standards and M. Katherine Baird
edited by Francis J. Beckwith
Immigration: Debating the Issues
and Michael E. Bauman
edited by Nicholas Capaldi
Caring for the Dying:
The Media and Morality
Critical Issues at the Edge of Life
edited by Robert M. Baird,
Cloning: Responsible Science William E. Loges, and Stuart E. Rosenbaum
or Technomadness?
Morality and the Law
edited by Michael Ruse and Aryne Sheppard
Pornography: Private Right
Cyberethics: Social and Moral Issues
or Public Menace? (Revised edition)
in the Computer Age
edited by Robert M. Baird, Punishment and the Death Penalty:
Reagan Ramsower, The Current Debate
and Stuart E. Rosenbaum
Same-Sex Marriage:
Drugs: Should We Legalize, The Moral and Legal Debate
Decriminalize, or Deregulate?
The Science Wars: Debating Scientific
edited by Jeffrey A. Schaler
Knowledge and Technology
The Ethics of Abortion: edited by Keith Parsons
Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice
Sexual Harassment:
(Third edition)
Confrontations and Decisions
The Ethics of Organ Transplants: (Revised edition) edited by Edmund Wall
The Current Debate
edited by Arthur L. Caplan and Should Parents Be Licensed? Debating the Issues
edited by Peg Tittle
Daniel H. Coelho
Smoking: Who Has the Right?
Euthanasia: The Moral Issues
edited by Jeffrey A. Schaler
Generations Apart: and Magda E. Schaler
Xers vs. Boomers vs. the Elderly
edited by Richard D. Thau The Stem Cell Controversy:
and Jay S. Fleflin Debating the Issues
edited by Michael Ruse
Genetically Modified Foods: and Christopher A. Pynes
Debating Biotechnology
edited by Michael Ruse and David Castle Suicide: Right or Wrong? (Second edition)
edited by John Donnelly
SHOULD PARENTS BE
LICENSED?
DEBATING THE ISSUES
edited by PEG TITTLE
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LIBRARY
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Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, New York 14228-2197
Published 2004 by Prometheus Books
Should Parents Be Licensed? Debating the Issues. Copyright © 2004 by Peg Tittle. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical,
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Amherst, New York 14228-2197
VOICE: 716-691-0133, ext. 207
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Should parents be licensed? : debating the issues / edited by Peg Tittle,
p. cm. — (Contemporary issues series)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-59102-094-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Parenting—Government policy. 2. Parents—Legal status, laws, etc.
3. Parenthood—Moral and ethical aspects. 4. Human reproduction—Moral and
ethical aspects. I. Tittle, Peg, 1957- II. Series: Contemporary issues (Amherst,
N.Y.)
HQ755.8.S5326 2003
649'. 1—dc21
2003010923
2003018602
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Introduction 9
I. Parenting 49
1. Proposals 49
Licensing Parents
Hugh LaFollette 51
A National Parenting Policy
Jack C. Westman 64
A Policy of Parent Licensing
Katherine Coveil and R. Brian Howe 83
Parenthood Training or Mandatory Birth Control:
Take Your Choice
Roger W. Mclntire 90
2. Assessment 99
Licensing Parents: How Feasible?
Claudia Pap Mangel 101
5
6 • CONTENTS
Custody Evaluations: A Realistic View
Diane A. Trombetta 115
Adoption and the Parental Screening System
Elizabeth Bartholet 119
Reproductive Rights and Access to the Means of Reproduction
Christine Overall 130
II. Parentage 141
1. Genetic Disease 141
Can Having Children Be Immoral?
Laura M. Purdy 143
Implications of Prenatal Diagnosis for the Human Right to Life
Leon R. Kass 157
2. Genetic Control 165
The Ethics of Genetic Control: Some Answers
Joseph Fletcher 167
Debunking the Slippery Slope Argument against
Human Germ-Line Gene Therapy
David Resnik 176
Reproductive Rights and Genetic Disease
Lawrence R Ulrich 190
Parents and Genetic Counselors: Moral Issues
Ruth Macklin 194
III. Objections and Replies 209
1. Do We Have a Right to “Have Children”? 209
Procreative Liberty
John A. Robertson 211
The Moral Bases of a Right to Reproductive Freedom
Dan W. Brock 224
Contents • 7
Is There a Natural Right to Have Children?
5. L. Floyd and D. Pomerantz 230
Having Children: Introduction
Ruth F. Chadwick 233
Sterilization of the Mentally Severely Handicapped:
A Violation of the Right to Have Children?
Eike-Henner W. Kluge 243
The Right to Procreate:
When Rights Claims Have Gone Wrong
Laura Shanner 250
2. Is Legislation the Best Response? 254
Norplant, Forced Contraception, and Irresponsible Reproduction
John A. Robertson 256
The Mythology of Family Planners
Edgar R. Chasteen 281
Genetic Engineering: Goals and Controls
Peter Singer and Deane Wells 300
Inescapable Eugenics
Philip Kitcher 304
Arguments in Favor and against Legally Requiring a
Pregnant Woman to Act in the Interests of Her Future Child
Deborah Mathieu 309
Arguments against Licensing Parents
Jack C. Westman 333
Epilogue 357
Notes on the Contributors 361
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