ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on “looked-after children”: children the rearing of whom has become the direct responsibility of the state, for example through foster families or residential institutions. Because this is not a developed area in applied philosophy, the chapter does not so much map a self-contained area of inquiry as show how broader, well-established themes and debates relate to the situation of children in the care system. Four questions are explored, in this vein. First, what moral and social significance does “taking” children into the care of the state hold? Second, on what grounds should children be “taken into care”? Third, what entitles the state, in particular, to do this, and how far does that entitlement go? And fourth, what wider questions of social justice are raised as we compare the situation of children in care with that of other children?