The Foundations Of Flourishing And Our Responsibility To Infants

The Foundations of Flourishing and Our Responsibility to Infants

Neuroscientific evidence reveals that childcare centres are high stress environments which can disrupt the brain’s emotional developmental circuitry during critical phases, impacting a child’s later ability to flourish. At the same time evidence also reveals that some parenting practices are sub-optimal. Exploring what it is infants really need to grow emotionally well, represents a largely unexplored issue. If the state wants to be populated by flourishing individuals, then this topic must be addressed. Using an ethical framework to tease out the wide ranging, complex, and sometimes controversial issues that this dilemma presents, The Foundations of Flourishing and Our Responsibility to Infants follows a cross-disciplinary journey. The author pieces together pertinent issues in a synthesised critique of political, feminist, and moral philosophy, as well as psychological and neuroscientific findings, and offers some possible solutions. It will be of interest to researchers and teachers in areas including philosophy, psychology, education, social care, as well as educators and policy-makers in early childhood development.

FOUNDATIONS OF FLOURISHING AND OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO INFANTS

The Moral Foundations of Parenthood

Most people believe that parents have moral rights and responsibilities regarding their children. These rights and responsibilities undergird the nuclear family and are essential to the flourishing of its members. However, their basis and contents are hotly contested. Do a child's genetic parents have a right to parent her? The importance of genetic ties is affirmed by many people's gut responses, everyday talk, and many court decisions, but the moral justification for tying parenthood rights to genetics is unclear. Parents are routinely permitted to make far-reaching decisions about their children's medical care, education, religious practice, and even how to punish them. When can parental rights be limited by the interests of the child or society? Matters are no more settled when it comes to parental responsibilities. It is commonly thought that if a man conceives a child through voluntary sexual intercourse he acquires parental responsibilities, even if he took every precaution against conception. On the other hand, sperm donors are widely-though not universally-thought to have no responsibilities towards their progeny. What is the basis for these disparate judgments? Parents are expected to do a lot for their children as they raise them. But there are surely limits. Sometimes parents have to balance the needs of multiple family members or just want to have time for themselves. What is the extent of their parental responsibilities? In The Moral Foundations of Parenthood, Joseph Millum provides a philosophical account of moral parenthood. He explains how parental rights and responsibilities are acquired, what those rights and responsibilities consist in, and how parents should go about making decisions on behalf of their children. In doing so, he provides a set of frameworks to help solve pressing ethical dilemmas relating to parents and children.