Is having a child a right?
Ian Murray over at The Conrer has an interesting post on whether having a child is a right or, as one British MP asserts, a privilege. The discussion stems from a Sun article in which 59-year old Sue Tollefson tells the paper that she plans to use In vitro fertilisation (IVF) to have a baby. The MP, Tom Harris, contends that the state should be able to ban IVF at that age because “of course 60 is too old to become a mum.” Harris argument is actually quite interesting:
I agree that it’s not fair that some women who desperately want to have children reach the age when they can collect their pension but still haven’t achieved that ambition. But what’s even more unfair is knowing that a child is born with the near certainty of being left motherless before it reaches its teens, or will spend their formative years as a carer. Children are not lifestyle choices. They’re not possessions to be added to our collections of material wealth as we grow older: first car (used), first flat, first house, second car (new), baby, bigger house… Children are precious for their own sake. The happiness and fulfilment they offer to their parents is secondary.
As for Ian Murray at The Corner, he argues that there exists a right to have a child: “Now I’m not one for long lists of positive rights, much preferring short lists of negative rights, [ ] it says something that every statement of human rights since the 1948 U.N. declaration includes the right to marry and found a family.” I can imagine, though, that some of his colleagues will take an opposite position. For faced with a common conservative dilemma — what to do when rights conflict with religious belief — many will see IVF as unnatural and, thus, immoral in itself.
-Marc
Related posts:
- Who decides what’s best for children?
- Healthcare and human rights cont.
- WWTD? (What would Tiger do?)
- Internet fun or child exploitation?
- Should health care cover spiritual medicine?
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