Should parents be licensed?: debating the issues

Does everyone and, more important, should everyone have the right to give birth to and raise children? Should there be a national parenting policy that includes mandatory parenthood training and screening to determine the suitability of all prospective parents, not just adoptive or foster parents? Should contraception ever be made compulsory to prevent some people from procreating? Is there a meaningful difference between being a mother or father and becoming a parent? Prospective teachers are required to study full time for years and pass qualifying exams before assuming the responsibility of educating our children. Yet there are no qualifications for the parents who care for, influence, and affect the futures of those same children throughout their lives. In this provocative collection of articles, experts from philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, law, political science, public health, sociology, and anthropology consider the issues involved in the debate over whether controls of any sort should be placed on the birthing and raising of children. Following editor Peg Tittle's thorough introduction to the topic, the first part of the book focuses on the nurturing aspect of parenting, presenting several proposals for licensing. It then takes a closer look at the problem of assessing nurturing skills, drawing on work done in the areas of custody, adoption, and new reproductive technologies. The second part considers the reproductive element of parenting, exploring the moral acceptability of passing on genetic disease, as well as the ethical implications of genetic engineering. The third part examines in greater detail the claims and counterclaims surrounding the concept of licensing parents, including parenting as a right and the role of legislation. Since the public is often obliged to care for children when parents cannot or will not, the licensing of parents is a vital question that affects us all.

Introduction -- [Pt.] I. Parenting. 1. Proposals. Licensing parents / Hugh LaFollette ; A national parenting policy / Jack C. Westman ; A policy of parent licensing / Katherine Covell and R. Brian Howe ; Parenthood training or mandatory birth control: take your choice / Roger W. McIntire ; 2. Assessment. Licensing parents: how feasible? / Claudia Pap Mangel ; Custody evaluations: a realistic view / Diane A. Trombetta ; Adoption and the parental screening system / Elizabeth Bartholet ; Reproductive rights and access to the means of reproduction / Christine Overall -- [Pt.] II. Parentage. 1. Genetic disease. Can having children be immoral? / Laura M. Purdy ; Implications of prenatal diagnosis for the human right to life / Leon R. Kass ; 2. Genetic control. The ethics of genetic control: some answers / Joseph Fletcher ; Debunking the slippery slope argument against human germ-line gene therapy / David Resnik ; Reproductive rights and genetic disease / Lawrence P. Ulrich ; Parents and genetic counselors: moral issues / Ruth Macklin -- [Pt.] III. Objections and replies. 1. Do we have a right to "have children?" Procreative liberty / John A. Robertson ; The moral bases of a right to rep…