Why Have Children? ─ The Ethical Debate

In contemporary Western society, people are more often called upon to justify thechoice not to have children than they are to supply reasons for having them. In this book, ChristineOverall maintains that the burden of proof should be reversed: that the choice to have childrencalls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to. Arguing that the choiceto have children is not just a prudential or pragmatic decision but one with ethical repercussions,Overall offers a wide-ranging exploration of how we might think systematically and deeply about thisfundamental aspect of human life. Writing from a feminist perspective, she also acknowledges theinevitably gendered nature of the decision; the choice has different meanings, implications, andrisks for women than it has for men.

After considering a series of ethicalapproaches to procreation, and finding them inadequate or incomplete, Overall offers instead a novelargument. Exploring the nature of the biological parent-child relationship -- which is not onlygenetic but also psychological, physical, intellectual, and moral -- she argues that the formationof that relationship is the best possible reason for choosing to have a child.

Christine Overall is Professor of Philosophy and University Research Chair in the Department of Philosophy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. She is the author of Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry and other books.