One Child

Do We Have a Right to More?

Sarah Conly

Argues that we have the right to one, and only one, child
Examines the environmental costs of reproduction
Proposes that some instances of governmental control over reproduction are acceptable

One Child

Do We Have a Right to More?

Sarah Conly

Description

A compelling argument for the morality of limitations on procreation in lessening the harmful environmental effects of unchecked population

We live in a world where a burgeoning global population has started to have a major and destructive environmental impact. The results, including climate change and the struggle for limited resources, appear to be inevitable aspects of a difficult future. Mandatory population control might be a possible last resort to combat this problem, but is also a potentially immoral and undesirable violation of human rights. Since so many view procreation as an essential component of the right to personal happiness and autonomy, the dominant view remains that the government does not have the right to impose these restrictions on its own citizens, for the sake of future people who have yet to exist.

Sarah Conly is first to make the contentious argument that not only is it wrong to have more than one child in the face of such concerns, we do not even retain the right to do so. In One Child, Conly argues that autonomy and personal rights are not unlimited, especially if one's body may cause harm to anyone, and that the government has a moral obligation to protect both current and future citizens. Conly gives readers a thought-provoking and accessible exposure to the problem of population growth and develops a credible view of what our moral obligations really are, to generations present and future.

One Child

Do We Have a Right to More?

Sarah Conly

One Child

Do We Have a Right to More?

Sarah Conly

Author Information

Sarah Conly is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowdoin College and the author of Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism (2013).

One Child

Do We Have a Right to More?

Sarah Conly

Reviews and Awards

"This book is a highly valuable contribution to practical philosophy. It gets a hugely important topic on the table in a serious way without compromising readability. If you are looking for an engaging and provocative addition to your personal library, or for your ethics or political philosophy courses, I highly recommend this book." -- Jason Marsh, Journal of Moral Philosophy

"Sarah Conly's book tackles an urgent, under-discussed topic: Is having children an unlimited, personal right? Or is this view no longer tenable in an era of vast increases in human population? Professor Conly rejects unlimited procreation rights and defends a one child per family limit as a moral imperative and perhaps as a legal requirement. This very fine book is clearly written, thorough in its treatment of the issues, and very fair to the opposing views."--Stephen Nathanson, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Northeastern University

"...this is a well-crafted book on a very important topic...It is probably laypersons and undergraduate students who will benefit the most from reading this book." -- Metapsychology Online Reviews

"One Child is hard to resist. Conly starts from a well-developed empirical basis--multiply-sourced news about the devastation we court, but which she deploys modestly...Lucid, engaging, and empirically saturated...These discussions are wholly pertinent and quite well done." -- Philosophers' Magazine