The Moral Status of Children

The Moral Status of Children
Author: Michael Freeman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2023-08-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004632697

With the passing of the UN Convention in 1989 children's rights have been placed firmly on the political agenda. This book explores a variety of children's rights issues from the Convention and beyond. It examines the moral foundations of children's rights issues from the Convention and beyond, and offers insights into children's rights issues both old and new. Amongst the subjects covered are the history of children's rights, empowerment, cultural pluralism, sexual abuse, contact as a child's right, the reproduction revolution and the child's right to identity, and children's rights in the context of English law. This is a book which those interested in children, children's issues and children's rights will find stimulating and rewarding. The author is a Professor of English Law at University College London, a barrister and the author of thirty books including, The Rights and The Wrongs of Children, Children's Rights: A Comparative Perspective, Children, Their Families and The Law and Violence In the Home: A Socio-Legal Study. He is the founding co-editor of the International Journal of Children's Rights, the editor of Current Legal Problems and a former editor of the Annual Survey of Family Law. A prominent advocate of children's rights for over 20 years, he has lectured widely on the subject.

The Moral Status of Children

The Moral Status of Children
Author: Michael D. A. Freeman
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1997-08-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789041103772

1. The moral status of children.

The Moral and Political Status of Children

The Moral and Political Status of Children
Author: David Archard
Publisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2002-06-20
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199242682

The book contains original essays by distinguished moral and political philosophers on the topic of the moral and political status of children. It covers the themes of children's rights, parental rights and duties, the family and justice, and civic education.

Moral Status and Human Life

Moral Status and Human Life
Author: James G. Dwyer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2010-10-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1139493183

Are children of equal, lesser, or perhaps even greater moral importance than adults? This work of applied moral philosophy develops a comprehensive account of how adults as moral agents ascribe moral status to beings - ourselves and others - and on the basis of that account identifies multiple criteria for having moral status. It argues that proper application of those criteria should lead us to treat children as of greater moral importance than adults. This conclusion presents a basis for critiquing existing social practices, many of which implicitly presuppose that children occupy an inferior status, and for suggesting how government policy, law, and social life might be different if it reflected an assumption that children are actually of superior status.

Rethinking Moral Status

Rethinking Moral Status
Author: Steve Clarke
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-08-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192894072

Common-sense morality implicitly assumes that reasonably clear distinctions can be drawn between the full moral status that is usually attributed to ordinary adult humans, the partial moral status attributed to non-human animals, and the absence of moral status, which is usually ascribed to machines and other artifacts. These implicit assumptions have long been challenged, and are now coming under further scrutiny as there are beings we have recently become able to create, as well as beings that we may soon be able to create, which blur the distinctions between human, non-human animal, and non-biological beings. These beings include non-human chimeras, cyborgs, human brain organoids, post-humans, and human minds that have been uploaded into computers and onto the internet and artificial intelligence. It is far from clear what moral status we should attribute to any of these beings. There are a number of ways we could respond to the new challenges these technological developments raise: we might revise our ordinary assumptions about what is needed for a being to possess full moral status, or reject the assumption that there is a sharp distinction between full and partial moral status. This volume explores such responses, and provides a forum for philosophical reflection about ordinary presuppositions and intuitions about moral status.

Consciousness and Moral Status

Consciousness and Moral Status
Author: Joshua Shepherd
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2018-05-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1315396327

It seems obvious that phenomenally conscious experience is something of great value, and that this value maps onto a range of important ethical issues. For example, claims about the value of life for those in Permanent Vegetative State (PVS); debates about treatment and study of disorders of consciousness; controversies about end-of-life care for those with advanced dementia; and arguments about the moral status of embryos, fetuses, and non-human animals arguably turn on the moral significance of various facts about consciousness. However, though work has been done on the moral significance of elements of consciousness, such as pain and pleasure, little explicit attention has been devoted to the ethical significance of consciousness. In this book Joshua Shepherd presents a systematic account of the value present within conscious experience. This account emphasizes not only the nature of consciousness, but also the importance of items within experience such as affect, valence, and the complex overall shape of particular valuable experiences. Shepherd also relates this account to difficult cases involving non-humans and humans with disorders of consciousness, arguing that the value of consciousness influences and partially explains the degree of moral status a being possesses, without fully determining it. The upshot is a deeper understanding of both the moral importance of phenomenal consciousness and its relations to moral status. This book will be of great interest to philosophers and students of ethics, bioethics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science.

The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth

The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth
Author: Helen Watt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2016-01-08
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 131728383X

The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth addresses the unique moral questions raised by pregnancy and its intimate bodily nature. From assisted reproduction to abortion and ‘vital conflict’ resolution to more everyday concerns of the pregnant woman, this book argues for pregnancy as a close human relationship with the woman as guardian or custodian. Four approaches to pregnancy are explored: ‘uni-personal’, ‘neighborly’, ‘maternal’ and ‘spousal’. The author challenges not only the view that there is only one moral subject to consider in pregnancy, but also the idea that the location of the fetus lacks all inherent, unique significance. It is argued that the pregnant woman is not a mere ‘neighbor’ or helpful stranger to the fetus but is rather already in a real familial relationship bringing real familial rights and obligations. If the status of the fetus is conclusive for at least some moral questions raised by pregnancy, so too are facts about its bodily relationship with, and presence in, the woman who supports it. This lucid, accessible and original book explores fundamental ethical issues in a rich and often neglected area of philosophy in ways of interest also to those from other disciplines.

The Philosophy of Childhood

The Philosophy of Childhood
Author: Gareth Matthews
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1994
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780674664807

Adult preconceptions about the mental life of children tend to discourage a child’s philosophical bent. By exposing the underpinnings of adult views of childhood, Matthews clears the way for recognizing the philosophy of childhood as a legitimate field of inquiry and conducts us through influential models for understanding what it is to be a child.

In Their Best Interest?

In Their Best Interest?
Author: Laura Martha Purdy
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1992
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780801499562

From where they live and which school they attend to whether they may work, children's decisions are controlled by parents and guardians. Advocates of equal rights for children have, however, offered both empirical evidence and ethical arguments against the popular assumption that children are incompetent to exercise the same freedoms as adults. Laura M. Purdy here challenges both aspects of the case for children's liberation, rejecting the conclusion that in democratic societies legal distinctions between children and adults should be eliminated.