In the essay, “Licensing Parents” the author Hugh Lafollette argues that a licensing system would protect children and society overall. For Lafollette, a licensing system would train parents to obtain a basic level of expertise and would separate those who stand a serious risk to children. His argument for parental licensing is based on an effortless set of parallels. The most obvious example that he gives is the licensing system that governs the driving of cars. He says if you want to drive a car, you must earn a driving license which involves passing a test of comprehension and skills that establishes a “minimum” level of competence. His argument is to help society protect children and stop parents from narrow minded thinking, which is the tendency that they have “natural …show more content…
This is because the caseworker will have a better understanding about the family background, relationships and social life, parenting experiences etc. A person can completely lie throughout this process and majority of the time a caseworker does not follow up with their provided references because he/she feels that they are worthy of being trusted as an adoptee. Lafollette does not state how this process will be enforced and neither does he specify how impostors that are up to no good will be denied. Finally, Lafollette’s argument is not even addressed properly. He uses term such as “theoretically desirable” which makes his argument seem unpersuasive and uncertain. He states, “I shall argue that the state should require all parents to be licensed. My Main goal is to demonstrate that the licensing of parents is theoretically desirable. I argue a general licensing program should be established. Finally, I shall briefly suggest that the reason many people object to licensing is that they think parents, particularly biological parents, own or have a natural sovereignty over their children.”
In Hugh Lafollette’s paper, “Licensing Parents” he talks about the need for government licensing of parents. His argument states that for any activity that is harmful to others, requires competence, and has a reliable procedure for determining competence, should require licensing by the government. This argument relates to parenting because it can be harmful to children, requires competence to raise those children, and we can assume that a reliable procedure can be formulated. Therefore, parenting should require licensing by the government. I agree with Lafollette and shall focus on supporting him by addressing the most practical objections: There is no reliable procedure for identifying competent parents and it is impossible to reasonably enforce parent regulations. I shall address these objections and their reasoning, followed by responses that Lafollette and myself would most likely have, thereby refuting the objections.
...l now be given the power to interfere in cases where parents have failed in their duties towards the child. This is extremely important as it allows the State to intervene in cases where there has been a failure, which was difficult to do in the past. This new role of protecting children's rights is favourable as it will, hopefully, prevent any failure by the State to children in unacceptable circumstances/situation.
Turner, Janice. "Should We Need a License to Be a Parent?" Respond in Writing. Ed.
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
In 2002, 51,000 children were adopted through the foster care system. The federal government tracks the number of adoptions from the United States foster care system, and all of its international adoptions. It’s estimated that around 120,000 children are adopted by U.S citizens each year. Half of these children are adopted by individuals not related to t...
Many aspiring foster parent anticipated the increase in their expenses once they added a member in their family but one thing that surprised many is that there is a upfront cost that they will need to pay before they received their adoptee. “You may be shocked to learn that there are few costs to adopting a child. Or you may be surprised to discover that not every adoption costs thousands of dollars.” (financing). Theres is no recruitment agency that will cover that cost not even the government. And I think some people who planned to adopt and once they realized the cost that they need to pay first, they back out and the will keep the children in the foster care and that’s why we have a lot of kids there. The organization that I chose helps the potential foster parents to understand their options to how they can afford to
First, social-work and mental-health experts have reached a consensus during the last decade that greater openness offers an array of benefits for adoptees—from ongoing information about family medical issues to fulfillment of their innate desire to know about their genetic histories—even if the expanded relationships prove difficult or uncomfortable for some of the participants (Verbrugge). An open adoption is when the natural mother and the adoptive family know the identity of each other and could obtain background or medical history from the biological parent. In an open adoption the parental rights of biological parents are terminated, as it is in a closed adoption, but an open adoptio...
The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was as a response to growing concerns about “foster care drift”; that is, children experiencing multiple, unstable foster care placements over extended periods, children virtually lost within the child welfare system (Rockhill, 2007). The ASFA has become a very important and much needed policy that helped with placement and safet...
...his primary example of this is the deliberations unguided children would make about their lives. While a child would have certain necessary desires, for food, stimulation, warmth and contact, that child also lacks desires for what we would consider makes life go best (desires to develop capacities and to become nurtured in the customs of society).
The first stage of Erikson's psychosocial stage is trust vs. mistrust, which is experienced, in the first year of life. Infants learn to trust in order to satisfy their needs thus developing a feeling of self-worth. When infants receive inconsistent care they may mistrust the people in their life. This is a very important stage to look at when looking at adoption and the foster care system. Children who are adopted in the first few weeks of life will probably not face may difficulties during this stage because their care will be consistent from the second or third week on. This is very different from children who are adopted later in this stage or who are in the foster care system during this stage. Some of these children will have inconsistent care thus mistrusting people in their lives. This mistrust will follow this child for a long time or possibly for the rest of their life. For example I was adopted at three years old and I remember my social worker coming by a year after I have been placed with my family to do the last home visit. As soon as I saw her I ran and hid in my closet because she had taken me away from so many places and my care was so inconsistent that I have formed a sense of mistrust of people. With the help of my family I have learned to trust and have successfully completed this stage.
...e free of disability or disease. Therefore, any attempt to surpass the normal range of human ability would be considered an enhancement, and not the treatment or prevention of disease. Savulescu’s argument for the moral obligation for enhancement treats the normal range of human abilities as a hindrance to the opportunities that one has to the best life. This is apparent in this statement, “unless there is something special and optimal about our children’s physical, psychological, or cognitive abilities… it would be wrong not to enhance them” (Savulescu 420). To treat the natural range of human capabilities as a hindrance upon an individual’s possibility for the best life is to require the elimination of the natural variance in the human population. It does not follow that the moral obligation to treat and prevent disease entails the obligation to enhance children.
It is hard to define the motives of someone who wants to adopt a child from foster care since it is truly hard to fully understand the intentions of anyone. When people come into the foster home, the people who work at these homes want to believe that the future parents looking to adopt these children would provide them a loving place to stay and that the sole purpose for their adoption is to provide a better home for the child. Sadly, this is not always
Or what about a situation where a child you closely know is in need of a loving family? Maybe you were adopted, or your life has been deeply touched by adoption. Wouldn 't you want to benefit others lives in the same way? Now of course there are numerous hardships and dangers of adoption as well. The process of adoption can take anywhere from quite a few months to several years. You must connect with adoption agencies, complete home studies, submit important documents, and fill out possibly endless amounts of paperwork. The financial implications can also be quite large for the different required services to become an adoptive family. Also, when adopting, you don 't always know what you are getting yourself into. What health or behavioral issues will my new child have? Will they be strong and healthy? Or was their birth mother irresponsible during pregnancy causing developmental issues? All these aspects from how to adopt, why to adopt, and hardships of adoption will factor into ones decision to adopt and pursuing that decision, or
The best analogy in his speech is how we perceive primates, insects and rocks. We give primates more moral recognition and more ethical obligations than the other domains (insects and rocks). This is a factual claim that primates experience a wider range of emotion than insects and rocks, such as happiness and sadness. We treat them differently because they are more similar to us and we can empathize with those exact emotions. If there was new evidence indicating that insects and rocks can feel the same range of feelings, then that would change our moral views of the said
In addition to teenagers gaining independence and freedom with a license, parents also gain more freedom as well. Teenagers who cannot drive rely heavily on parents, siblings, and other people to chauffeur them around. Not only does this cost more for the driver, ...