Why am I passionate about this?
I have been researching and teaching about moral issues for more than a decade. How people procreate and how often they procreate has a huge impact on both the children born and others who interact with them. Yet even in academic philosophy – a discipline that often questions the appropriateness of ordinary behavior – the moral scrutiny of having children has been lacking. As I observed the population continue to rise and the circumstances of future people become more precarious, I thought the ethics of procreation needed deeper investigation. I hope my recent work on this topic will help others think more carefully about the moral complexities of having and raising children.
Trevor's book list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids
Why did Trevor love this book?
Christine Overall’s approach to the ethics of procreation draws more heavily on feminist philosophy than my other recommendations.
Understanding the aspects of procreation and pregnancy that exclusively impact women is crucial to informed ethical reflection on the issue, and Overall is one of the foremost experts on this aspect of procreative ethics.
Overall also intertwines her discussion of procreative ethics with questions about why having children is valuable and what motivates a decision to have them.
1 author picked Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A wide-ranging exploration of whether or not choosing to procreate can be morally justified -- and if so, how.
In contemporary Western society, people are more often called upon to justify the choice not to have children than they are to supply reasons for having them. In this book, Christine Overall maintains that the burden of proof should be reversed: that the choice to have children calls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to. Arguing that the choice to have children is not just a prudential or pragmatic decision but one with ethical repercussions, Overall offers…
- Coming soon!