Don’t recall how I found the site The Anarchist Alternative, but I do appreciate the essay discussing children’s rights. Minor nit, though: outside of a planned cesarean section, a woman doesn’t “decide to give birth”. My understanding – ah, verified! – is the fetus decides.
An Interesting Take on Pro-Freedom Parenting
Quibbles
Submitted by Sunni on Tue, 2007-05-08 07:53.
Thanks for the reminder, Jorge; revisiting that thread has been helpful. And you’re probably right about that “deciding to give birth” phrase—it could have been phrased much more clearly.
MAL has quibbles with the essay too, but I can’t articulate them very well.
It is not a bad piece, but I
It is not a bad piece, but I have a couple of quibbles:
"the baby has a right to stick a fork into a power outlet"
This is incorrect, the power outlet belongs to someone. The baby has no right
to use that property in a way the owner does not permit.
The statement from a father to rebellious teenager, "As long as you live under
my roof, you'll do as you are told!", while not very wise, is in fact,
consistent with property rights. In a free society, or a free household today,
if a child wants to move out, they can. Of course in today's world it is a bit
more complicated because of the possibility of state interference, but even
under these less than ideal circumstances some children do move out. I know a
young lady who left home at 15, which according to both her and her mother was
the best thing for both of them. They are now good friends, and instead of
frequently arguing and trying to avoid each other, they spend a lot of time
together.
By "the mother decides to give birth" they actually mean take the pregnancy to
term. At least this is what I think they mean.
Also the idea that parents, but not the child, have a contractual obligation has been stated elsewhere. For example, here :)