ABSTRACT
Consideration of the particular nature of the vulnerabilities of children and legal responses to them which promote their flourishing may enable us to reflect on legal solutions to the vulnerabilities of adults through approaches other than merely individualistic rights-based ones. Critical comment upon the practice of surrogacy often refers to the vulnerabilities of the participants. Within the child law aspects of family law, law’s coherence lies in the perception of the child as ‘other’ to the autonomous adult individual, a becoming subject in relation to whom the law gives parents much freedom in their choices about educating, instilling with moral values, or disciplining, the child. Legal responses, the principles and processes of the law, can address human vulnerabilities, but if the law fails to consider dependency, relationality and interdependency, it can instead exacerbate the vulnerabilities we face as already vulnerable humans.
