Should Parenthood Be a Right?

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Should Parenthood be a Right? Amanda Hopkins SOC120 Tiffany Davis 03/05/2012 Is it our “right” to be a parent or should there be some standards we must meet before entering parenthood? I plan to argue a theory that parenting should be under some sort of supervision and that there should be a limit to the unwanted children born. we support anyone that want’s to be a parent, even if they are unfit, or if they suffer from a mental illness or defect? What makes a person unfit? What should the standards be for the living arrangement, and the general way a child is cared for? What about gay and lesbian adoption, or adopting outside your own race or religion? There are so many people on government assistance, should they be allowed to continue to have children, over and over, when they clearly are not capable of providing for them? The list of reasonable questions could go on and on but clearly there should be a guideline set in place for entering parenthood, maybe it would stop uneducated, underage, and unwilling mothers from reproducing. For this ethical issue, I have chosen utilitarianism as my classical theory that could resolve this problem. This theory states that given choices, we chose the act that produces the best result for the most affected people. I feel that utilitarianism could help to resolve the problem because by setting in place a guideline by the state or government, it would ensure that children brought into the world could be cared for properly, before they are created. We would ensure this by passing laws and requiring teen’s to receive birth control. This would affect most of the world because it would lower the number of unwanted children that end up on government assistance, and end up with issues they have developed because of unfit parents. Emotivism plays a large role in this issue for me. I have a lot of animosity toward
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