Why Have Children? by Christine Overall

Why Have Children? by Christine Overall

A wide-ranging exploration of whether or not choosing to procreate can be morally justified--and if so, how.

In contemporary Western society, people are more often called upon to justify the choice not to have children than they are to supply reasons for having them. In this book, Christine Overall maintains that the burden of proof should be reversed: that the choice to have children calls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to. Arguing that the choice to have children is not just a prudential or pragmatic decision but one with ethical repercussions, Overall offers a wide-ranging exploration of how we might think systematically and deeply about this fundamental aspect of human life. Writing from a feminist perspective, she also acknowledges the inevitably gendered nature of the decision; the choice has different meanings, implications, and risks for women than it has for men.

After considering a series of ethical approaches to procreation, and finding them inadequate or incomplete, Overall offers instead a novel argument. Exploring the nature of the biological parent-child relationship--which is not only genetic but also psychological, physical, intellectual, and moral--she argues that the formation of that relationship is the best possible reason for choosing to have a child.

Overall, Christine: - Christine Overall is Professor of Philosophy and University Research Chair in the Department of Philosophy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. She is the author of Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry and other books.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262525299
ISBN 10	0262525291
Title	Why Have Children?
Author	Christine Overall
Series	Basic Bioethics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2013-09-20
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.