DISQUS

Will Wilkinson: Not That Kind of Libertarian: Puzzles of Children’s Rights

  • Oscar the Grump · 2 years ago
    [Children] have a right to be fed, educated, clothed, sheltered, and given medical care on someone else's dime. And if their parents abdicate this responsibility, then it passes onto the community, including the state, even if none of us asked said parent to reproduce.

    Why must this be done on someone else's involuntary dime? Look around. Hearts that bleed are legion. These bleeding hearts, with a spring in their step, would gladly and willingly look after these darling unfortunates. There are plenty of people who loudly, regularly, and at great length spare no breath to announce that their hearts bleed great gushing gouts. Surely not all of them are sanctimonious liars.
  • Eric Crampton · 2 years ago
    I want to know what makes children born in one's own country more morally worthy than children born abroad; if they aren't, then why don't we also have a positive moral obligation towards every child in Darfur? That the whole thing then becomes prohibitively expensive does not lessen the moral claim of foreign children.
  • TStockmann · 2 years ago
    But seriously… having a kid and not taking care of it automatically entitles the kid to be raised by the taxpayers?

    Consider the very peculiar grammar of this question as a clue to where your analysis may be falling short.
  • Anonymous · 2 years ago
    Eric,

    All children in all countries are equally morally worthy. But we can try to help children in this country without engaging in a shooting war. We don't have that kind of flexibility in Darfur, which makes it a much harder problem.
  • c&d · 2 years ago
    Will asks, do we "confiscate children whose parents violate their special relationship-relative positive rights?"
    We already do. Sadly, children are confiscated every day from abusive or neglectful homes. Bad parents are "fined, jailed or otherwise punished."


    It may be impossible to (1) provide support the children of poor parents (2) while at the same time not creating incentives for irresponsible behavior and (3) not unduly interfering with individual decisions regarding lifestyle and parenting.
  • Kentucky Adoption · 7 months ago
    All children has the right to live a worthy life so let's help them live a better life.