Parental Obligations and Bioethics

This book examines the question of what parental obligations procreators incur by bringing children into being. Prusak argues that parents, as procreators, have obligations regarding future children that constrain the liberty of would-be parents to do as they wish. Moreover, these obligations go beyond simply respecting a child's rights. He addresses in turn the ethics of adoption, child support, gamete donation, surrogacy, prenatal genetic enhancement, and public responsibility for children.

Bernard G. Prusak is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the McGowan Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at King's College, USA.

Introduction 1. What Are Parents For? A Thought Experiment 2. The Costs of Procreation 3. Abortion and the Grounds of Parental Obligations 4. Whose Child? 5. Good Enough Parenting? The Child's Right to an Open Future and the Ethics of Prenatal Genetic Enhancement 6. Back from the Future: Paying for the Priceless Child