Read the attached excerpt from an article on Parenting Licenses. Then compose a response to the article stating your position on whether you are in favor or against issuing parenting licenses AND WHY YOU CHOSE THAT POSITION?
NOTE: The attached article has been considered controversial and you may find that you are in favor of some parts and not others–that is perfectly acceptable. However, you must explain/defend your position regardless of whether you are in favor or against the information presented in the article.
a. Parental Licensing
Hugh LaFollette’s defense of the claim that the state should license parents is perhaps the
most influential and widely discussed version of the philosophical argument in favor of
parental licensing (LaFollette 1980). LaFollette argues that (i) if an activity is potentially
harmful to others; (ii) requires a certain level of competence; and (iii) this competence can
be demonstrated via a reliable test, then the activity in question should be regulated by the
state. These criteria justify current licensing programs. For instance, we require that
physicians obtain medical licenses from the state to ensure their competency due to the
potential harm caused by medical malpractice. In order to drive an automobile, a level of skill
must be demonstrated because of the potential harm to others that can be done by
incompetent drivers. These criteria also apply to parenting. It is clear that parents can harm
their children through abuse, neglect, and lack of love, which often results in physical and
psychological trauma. Children who suffer such harms may become adults who are neither
well-adjusted nor happy, which can lead to cyclical patterns of abuse and other negative
social consequences. Parenting also requires a certain competency that many people lack
due to temperament, ignorance, lack of energy, and psychological instability. LaFollette
believes that we can create a moderately reliable psychological test that will identify those
individuals who will likely abuse or neglect their children. At the time of his paper, such tests
were just beginning to be formulated. Since then, however, accurate parenting tests have
been developed which could serve as useful tools for identifying individuals who are likely
to be extremely bad parents (McFall 2009). Given that parenting is potentially harmful and
requires competence that can be demonstrated via a reliable test, by parity of reasoning the
state should also require licenses for parents. Moreover, given that we screen adoptive
parents and require that they demonstrate a level of competence before they are allowed to
adopt a child in order to reduce the chances of abuse or neglect, there is no compelling reason
not to require the same of biological parents. The aim of parental licensing is not to pick out
parents who will be very good, but rather to screen those who will likely be very bad by
abusing or neglecting their children. The intent is to prevent serious harm to children, as
well as the harms others suffer because of the social impact of child abuse. LaFollette
concludes that since a state program for licensing parents is desirable, justifiable, and
feasible, it follows that we should implement such a program.
Critics argue that there are both theoretical and practical problems with such proposals.
Some worry about cases where a woman is pregnant before acquiring a license and fails to
obtain one before giving birth. The picture of the state removing a newborn infant in such
cases and transferring custody to suitable adoptive parents is problematic because no abuse
or neglect has yet occurred. A variety of alternatives, including less invasive licensing as well
as non-licensing alternatives, have been proposed. LaFollette himself puts forth the
possibility that instead of prohibiting unlicensed parents from raising children, the state
could offer tax incentives for licensed parents and other types of interventions, such as
scrutiny by protective services of unlicensed parents, on the condition that such measures
would provide adequate protection for children. Others have proposed different
requirements for a parental license, with both fewer and greater restrictions than those
proposed by LaFollette. These include minimum and maximum age requirements,
mandatory parenting education, signing a contract in which a parent agrees to care for and
not maltreat his or her child (so that if a child is maltreated, removal of the child would be
based on a breach of contract rather than criminal liability), financial requirements, and
cognitive requirements. Others argue for alternatives to licensing, such as mandatory birth
control, extended (and perhaps paid) maternity and paternity leave, and universal daycare
provided by the government.
Finally, some argue that legally mandated family monitoring and counseling is preferable to
a program of licensing parents because it better accounts for the interests people have in
becoming and being parents and the welfare of children. It is also claimed to be preferable
to licensing because it avoids the possible injustices that may occur given the fallibility of any
test aimed at predicting human behavior. If people who are or will soon be parents can
develop as parents, it is better to give them the opportunity to do so under close supervision,
monitoring, and counseling, allowing them to be with their children when they are young
and a significant amount of bonding occurs. This practice would protect the interests of
children, society, and parents. For those parents whose incompetence is severe or who fail
to deal with their incompetence in a satisfactory manner, the monitoring/counseling
proposal rightly prevents them from raising children, according to advocates of this
approach.
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