Ethics and the Endangerment of Children's Bodies

This book is devoted to addressing the endangerment of children’s bodies in affluent societies. Bodily integrity is an important part of a child’s physical and mental well-being, but it can also be violated through various threats that they may face during childhood. Pre-adolescent bodies are particularly vulnerable; bodily damage not only affects physical health but can also cause mental damage and lead to distortions in the development of the self. 

All of these issues are unique in their characteristics, as well as how they affect children’s lives, and this book seeks to explore three major issues: (a) What do we know about the problem, its causes, extent and depth? (b) What ethical issues are involved and how does it affect children’s well-being and well-becoming? (c) How should society and the state respond? Readers will find the authors' combination of the available theoretical and empirical knowledge around these issues, complete with a thorough ethical analysis, to be invaluable in examining the necessity of an ethical basis for policies to safeguard children and their bodies.

Gunter Graf is Research Fellow at the International Research Centre for Social and Ethical Questions (IFZ) in Salzburg, Austria, and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research (CEPR) of the University of Salzburg, where he works in the project “Social Justice and Child Poverty”. His work primarily addresses political and social philosophy, with a focus on the capability approach and its relation to poverty and children. His previous publications include A Philosophical Examination of Social Justice and Child Poverty (2015).

Gottfried Schweiger is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg, Austria, where he is the principal investigator of the project “Social Justice and Child Poverty”, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). He has published works on poverty, unemployment, recognition, social justice, tax justice, and justice in professional sports. His previous publications include Justice, Education and the Politics of Childhood (2016).