ABSTRACT
Children are young human beings. Some children are very young human beings. Child 'liberationists' claim that children have all the rights that adults do. Others deny this, either believing that children have no rights or believing that children have only some of the rights which adults possess. Those who deny children all or some of the rights possessed by adults nevertheless believe that children, as human beings, have a certain moral status that ought to be protected. Those who say that drawing a line between adults and children in respect of their possession of rights is arbitrary may mean different things. The best interest principle should have only limited application. A child's right to be heard in matters affecting her interests is a substitute for, not a complement to, the right of choosing for herself, and the Gillick competence which qualifies a child to exercise her rights of decision-making is stringently defined.
