Human Reproduction, Vol. 14, No. 5, 1146-1150,
May 1999
© 1999 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Debates Continued |
Measuring the welfare of the child: in search of the appropriate evaluation principle
1Vakgroep Filosofie, Pleinlaan 2, Lok. 5 C 442, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium
Everybody agrees on the fundamental importance of the welfare of the child when judging the applicability of new reproductive technologies. However, this is as far as the consensus goes. The moral problem can be presented as the opposition between the right of the would-be parents to procreate and the well-being of the child. The positions on this issue are largely determined by one's view on parental responsibility (Pennings, 1995b
). The most frequently mentioned difficulty is that there are no reliable predictive criteria for inadequate parenting and, thus, no criteria which can be used to guarantee the best interests of the child (Harris, 1990). If we cannot reach a consensus on minimum parental capabilities, how can we introduce a licence or a test to exclude incompetent candidates for parenthood? (Lafollette, 1980). The second, and less well-known, problem concerns the choice of the principle to interpret the level or
The maximum welfare principle
The minimum threshold principle
The reasonable welfare principle
The reduction of the moral domain
Notes
References
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