The Right To Be Loved

S. Matthew Liao

The first book to make a sustained philosophical case for the right of children to be loved
Makes a unique contribution to the fast-growing literature on family ethics
Details the nature and distribution of the duty to love children

The Right To Be Loved

S. Matthew Liao

Description

S. Matthew Liao argues here that children have a right to be loved. To do so he investigates questions such as whether children are rightholders; what grounds a child's right to beloved; whether love is an appropriate object of a right; and other philosophical and practical issues. His proposal is that all human beings have rights to the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life; therefore, as human beings, children have human rights to the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life. Since being loved is one of those fundamental conditions, children thus have a right to be loved. Liao shows that this claim need not be merely empty rhetoric, and that the arguments for this right can hang together as a coherent whole.

This is the first book to make a sustained philosophical case for the right of children to be loved. It makes a unique contribution to the fast-growing literature on family ethics, in particular, on children's rights and parental rights and responsibilities, and to the emerging field of the philosophy of human rights.

The Right To Be Loved

S. Matthew Liao

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 Can Children Have Rights?
Chapter 2 Human Rights as Fundamental Conditions for a Good Life
Chapter 3 Being Loved as a Fundamental Condition for Children
Chapter 4 The Possibility of a Duty to Love
Chapter 5 The Duty to Love: Who Has It and To What Extent?
Chapter 6 Regulating Biological Parenting: The Problem of Possibly Inadequate Parents
Chapter 7 Children without Adequate Parents and the Duty to Adopt
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

The Right To Be Loved

S. Matthew Liao

Author Information

S. Matthew Liao is the Director of the Bioethics Program, Associate Professor in the Center for Bioethics, and Affiliated Professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University. He is interested in a wide range of issues in ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, moral psychology, and bioethics, has two forthcoming edited volumes with Oxford University Press, Moral Brains: The Significance of Neuroscience for Morality and Philosophical Foundations for Human Rights (co-edited with R. Cruft and M. Renzo).

The Right To Be Loved

S. Matthew Liao

Reviews and Awards

"...it is a worthy contribution to a vital debate...Liao raises important questions, makes important arguments, and considers the views of others skillfully and fairly. Those interested in the issues discussed above will profit from reading this book." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online

"A scholar of bioethics, Liao...addresses these questions in this pioneering work in the field of ethics and family life. Comprising seven interconnected essays on related themes, the book is lucid, well written, and compelling. By considering the fundamental conditions of human flourishing and what one needs to pursue a good life, the author makes a strong case for the right to be loved." -- CHOICE

"The book as a whole is a very welcome addition to a rich volume of philosophical writing on the ethics of the family and of procreation and on the moral and political status of children and parents. Some thirty years ago these topics were a comparatively neglected area of study. They are not now. Liao's book considerably enhances this domain of work. It contributes a clear defense of a provocative thesis that needed identifying, and we should all now as a result have a clearer sense of what children, and parents, can claim as their rights." -- Ethics