SHOULD PARENTS BE LICENSED? DEBATING THE ISSUES

Abstract

Introduction -- I. Parenting -- 1. Proposals -- Licensing parents / Hugh LaFollette -- A national parenting policy / Jack C. Westman -- A policy of parent licensing / Katherine Covell and R. Brian Howe -- Parenthood training or mandatory birth control: take your choice / Roger W. McIntire -- 2. Assessment -- Licensing parents: how feasible? / Claudia Pap Mangel -- Custody evaluation: a realistic view / Diane A. Trombetta -- Adoption and the parental screening system / Elizabeth Bartholet -- Reproductive rights and access to the means of reproduction / Christine Overall -- II. Parentage -- 1. Genetic disease -- Can having children be immoral? / Laura M. Purdy -- Implications of prenatal diagnosis for the human right to life / Leon R. Kass -- 2. Genetic control -- The ethics of genetic control: some answers / Joseph Fletcher -- Debunking the slippery slope argument against human germ-line gene therapy / David Resnik -- Reproductive rights and genetic disease / Lawrence P. Ulrich -- Parents and genetic counselors: moral issues / Ruth Macklin -- III. Objections and replies -- 1. Do we have a right to "have children"? -- Procreative liberty / John A. Robertson -- The moral bases of a right to reproductive freedom / Dan W. Brock -- Is there a natural right to have children? / S.L. Floyd and D. Pomerantz -- Having children: introduction / Ruth F. Chadwick -- Sterilization of the mentally severely handicapped: a violation of the right to have children? / Eike-Henner W. Kluge -- The right to procreate: when rights claims have gone wrong / Laura Shanner -- 2. Is legislation the best response? -- Norplant, forced contraception, and irresponsible reproduction / John A. Robertson -- The mythology of family planners / Edgar R. Chasteen -- Genetic engineering: goals and controls / Peter Singer and Deane Wells -- Inescapable eugenics / Philip Kitcher -- Arguments in favor and against legally requiring a pregnant woman to act in the interests of her future child / Deborah Mathieu -- Arguments against licensing parents / Jack C. Westman -- Epilogue -- Notes on the contributors