cover image Why Have Children?: The Ethical Debate

Why Have Children?: The Ethical Debate

Christine Overall. MIT, $27.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-262-01698-8

"To choose to have a child is to set out to create a relationship... that gives a particular meaning to one's own life and to the life of the [child]." Philosophy professor Overall (Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry) argues that "the burden of justification... should rest primarily on those who choose to have children, [a] choice [which] calls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to have children." Overall thoroughly covers the ethical questions that are connected to procreation with an academic detachment that is occasionally punctuated by commentary regarding her personal life. She addresses the rights to reproduce or not reproduce, and provides methods by which prospective parents in disagreement regarding the termination or continuation of a pregnancy might reach a consensus. She also discusses the contrasting consequentialist incentives (e.g., "savior siblings" or projected economic benefit once the child matures) and deontological arguments (e.g., the passing on of name and DNA via lineage) for childbearing, while additionally exploring the philosophical, ethical, and environmental reasons to not have children. In her conclusion, she offers her general advice to prospective parents ("Don't miss it!") and a brief review of the psychological, emotional, physical, and moral rewards of parenting. Cogently argued and exhaustively researched, Overall's newest will be of particular interest to thoughtful adults engaged in this debate, as well as students and professionals in philosophy and sociology. (Feb.)