Licensing Parents
Hugh Lafollette
Lafollette’s thesis and argument is that we should require all parents or potential parents to procure a license prior to having children. Just as we have licensing programs for anything potentially very harmful today, we should also have one for being a parent. We license drivers, doctors, gun owners, and many other types of potentially harmful practices. So why shouldn’t we also license parents?
Hugh’s argument is structured as this:
P1: Any practice or act that can cause considerable harm should be regulated.
P2: Parenting can lead to significantly bad harm.
C1: Parenting should be licensed.
If C1 follows naturally from P1 and P2 as I think most would see, then me must either object to P1 or P2 if we think that C1 is false, or be able to show an exception. An attack on the second premise plainly doesn’t stand. A maltreated or abused child is a very bad thing is it not? We have punishments for people that do so. And......
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Approximate Word Count: 708
Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |