ABSTRACT
The ethical obligations of parents to children belong to an intellectual realm that does not seem to me to have been very thoroughly explored. In secular discourse, especially that associated with economic and, more generally, consequentialist thinking, all individuals, including children, have rights and obligations induced by the need to preserve the benefits of society, but there is no special emphasis on the parent-child relation. Even religious discourse, though emphatic on the obligations of children to parents, places little emphasis on the reciprocal obligations. In fact, of course, a great deal of social activity, including economic activity, consists of parental support and maintenance of children. Moreover, the future adult life of children is profoundly affected by the family environment, so parental behavior becomes a serious externality for children, to use the economists’ jargon. In fact, the legal systems of most countries recognize these problems, if only in an ad hoc manner.
