Parental Licensing

Lafollette presents a rather radical idea, probably even more radical when he wrote it thirty years ago, but radical does not imply bad. Nor does it imply impossible. I feel Lafollette's piece defends his view with good detail and articulation, though there are several other areas in which he could garner support. For one he can play to peoples' idea of equality and egalitarianism. Above most other factors in life (if not all), the raising of a child in a situation where he will be abused physically or psychologically puts them at an unbelievable disadvantage. Children ignored, abused, or not nurtured in a positive way will surely lead a worse off life than most anyone raised in the opposite household.

One could argue though the parents would be treated in an unequal fashion. Again we can look to the cases of physicians though. People would disagree if we treated everyone equally in allowing them to perform surgeries, etc. Lafollette points this out and it makes very good sense. The only problem that could arise from this thought process is that unlike perofmring surgery, being a parental figure is a right.

The idea that people have a right to have children and have a family doesn't seem to have much backing. The arguments for people having rights to do so simply do not seem any deeper than 'because we say so'. Yes, people are designed to have children, but if we want to look at things biologically, people are also designed not as good in some aspect or another as someone else. This should than transfer to people and their ability to raise children. If you are simply not capable relative to an average standard at raising a human being, you should not be able to at the time you're deemed incapable. Obviously one can work at this and become acceptable at raising a child, but the amount of responsibilities that people must deal with when raising children is astronomical, and the ill effects parents can have on children reach far beyond to the child's adult life, and in many cases others around them.