Permissible Progeny?: The Morality of Procreation and Parenting

This volume contributes to the growing literature on the morality of procreation and parenting. About half of the chapters take up questions about the morality of bringing children into existence. They discuss the following questions: Is it wrong to create human life? Is there a connection
between the problem of evil and the morality of procreation? Could there be a duty to procreate? How do the environmental harms imposed by procreation affect its moral status? Given these costs, is the value of establishing genetic ties ever significant enough to render procreation morally
permissible? And how should government respond to peoples' motives for procreating?

The other half of the volume considers moral and political questions about adoption and parenting. One chapter considers whether the choice to become a parent can be rational. The two following chapters take up the regulation of adoption, focusing on whether the special burdens placed on adoptive
parents, as compared to biological parents, can be morally justified. The book concludes by considering how we should conceive of adequacy standards in parenting and what resources we owe to children.

This collection builds on existing literature by advancing new arguments and novel perspectives on existing debates. It also raises new issues deserving of our attention. As a whole it is sure to generate further philosophical debate on pressing and rich questions surrounding the bearing and
rearing of children.


Author: Sarah Hannan
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 10/05/2015
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.20h x 5.90w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780199378128

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2016

About the Author

Sarah Hannan is Assistant Professor of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba.

Samantha Brennan is Professor of Philosophy at Western University and co-editor of Philosophy and Death (Broadview, 2009) and The Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought (Broadview, three volumes, 2008-2012).

Richard Vernon is Distinguished University Professor at Western University and author of Cosmopolitan Regard (Cambridge, 2010) and Historical Redress (Bloomsbury, 2012).

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