The Right to Parent One's Biological Baby

It is generally accepted that individuals have a number of parenthood-related moral rights,such as the right to decide whether,with whom,when and how often to procreate, and to decide on many important aspects of how their children are raised. These moral rights have legal counterparts, often codied in national and international legal documents. One of them is the presumptive moral right of individuals to keep and raise their biological children. This right is undisputed, and legally protected, as long as parents meet certain criteria which deem them to be adequate parents. However, its philosophical justication is far from clear. It depends on answers to the questions: what makes parenting in general legitimate and how do individuals acquire the right to parent a particular baby? The importance of these questions became particularly salient as the traditional conception of what is a child and, implicitly, of parentinglost its grip. The right to keep and raise ones biological baby is part of a bundle of various parenthood-related rights, grounded in a long philosophical tradition. Children have been conceptualised as unfinished human beings with interests of their own (including qua future adults) and, at the same time and somewhat contradictorily, as being their parents property. 3 The rst feature of this traditional conception provided an answer to the question concerning the legitimacy of parenthood, the second to the question concerning the acquisition of parental rights with respect to particular babies. The understanding of children as incomplete adults, with interests of their own, originated in Aristotle and Locke. It generates legitimate paternalismthe idea that children need parents and that parenthood involves a parental obligation, and right, to make decisions that promote childrens wellbeing and guide childrens development towards maturity. Aristotle conceived of a fathers relation of ownership to his children as similar to a mans relation of ownership to his slave. 4 Some classical liberals and libertarians proposed a less literal interpretation of children as their parents property, representing them as extensions of their parents labour 5 or sense of self. 6 If children are their parents propertyof some sort or another 7 this obviously means that parents have a right to raise their children themselves. Therefore, according to one understanding of children and parenthood, parenthood is legitimate because it is necessary for the well-being of