I know I spend a lot of time saying things like this, but I’m kinda creeped out by the notion of “reproductive rights.” Why should anyone have an unrestricted right to create other human beings?
This is why the “what if the government is run by the wrong people and makes bad criteria for licensing” counterargument to parental licensing doesn’t bother me that much - it’s not a rights-violation because there’s no right to have children in the first place. At worst, some people who should’ve been able to have children wouldn’t, but that’s minor compared to the benefit of some of the wrong people not being able to have children.
Am I the only one on Tumblr who intuitively understands Beauty of Parenthood/parental rights stuff?
(*mumbles something about cupcakes*)
Idk I feel like parenthood is really intrinsic to my conception of the good. Like people complain about a lot of different rights violations, but rarely does anyone actually leave the country because of stop-and-frisk or the NSA or high taxes. If I couldn’t legally have kids I would leave the country in a second and I’m sure a lot of other people would too.
(I know the OP was about moral not legal rights I’m just saying that parenthood is really important to lots of people)
I don’t think abusive parents should be allowed to have children, but for anything less I’m skeptical that the benefits of fewer children with somewhat unhappy childhoods or a gene pool that’s better in some way outweigh the unhappiness of people who want to have children and can’t.