{"id":4596,"date":"2024-10-24T12:18:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T11:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4596"},"modified":"2024-10-25T15:36:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:36:56","slug":"what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2024\/10\/24\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the ground of the moral right to parent our biological children?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <span class=\"nlm-given-names\">Benjamin<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"nlm-surname\">Lange.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In my recent JME paper, <a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2024\/07\/20\/jme-2024-109904\"><em>Moral Parenthood: Not Gestational<\/em><\/a>, I challenge the idea that the moral right to parent our biological children should be grounded by appeal to the value of the intimate emotional relationship that gestation facilitates between a newborn and a gestational procreator.<\/p>\n<p>This issue is important because it addresses one of the most foundational aspects of family life: our partiality towards our biological children. The question of what grounds a moral right to parent a biological child is often assumed to be self-evident, but closer scrutiny reveals complexities that challenge these assumptions.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion overall has implications for contemporary discussions on family ethics and parental rights, particularly in cases of adoption, surrogacy, and reproductive technology. It also has implications for legislation in these areas. If we cannot justify exclusive parental rights based on gestation, we may need to rethink how we assign parental responsibilities and rights, potentially moving towards alternative models.<\/p>\n<p>For those interested in exploring these ideas further, I invite you to read the <a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2024\/07\/20\/jme-2024-109904\">full paper<\/a> in this journal or <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/japp.12660\">my recently published account<\/a> on the acquisition of parental rights, where I defend a project account of the acquisition of the moral right to parent particular children.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Paper:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2024\/07\/20\/jme-2024-109904\">Moral parenthood: not gestational<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Author: <\/strong><span class=\"nlm-given-names\">Benjamin <\/span><span class=\"nlm-surname\">Lange<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Affiliations:\u00a0<\/strong><span class=\"nlm-aff\"><span class=\"nlm-institution\" data-specific-use=\"Ringgold_9183\" data-hwp-id=\"institution-1\">Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnchen<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"nlm-addr-line\" data-content-type=\"city\">M\u00fcnchen<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"nlm-country\">Germany; <\/span><\/span><span class=\"nlm-aff\"><span class=\"nlm-institution\" data-hwp-id=\"institution-2\">Munich Center for Machine Learning<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"nlm-addr-line\" data-content-type=\"city\">Munich<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"nlm-country\">Germany<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests<\/strong>:\u00a0 None declared<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Benjamin\u00a0Lange. In my recent JME paper, Moral Parenthood: Not Gestational, I challenge the idea that the moral right to parent our biological children should be grounded by appeal to the value of the intimate emotional relationship that gestation facilitates between a newborn and a gestational procreator. This issue is important because it addresses one [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2024\/10\/24\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8128,8079,2022],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenthood","category-pregnancy","category-reproduction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is the ground of the moral right to parent our biological children? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2024\/10\/24\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is the ground of the moral right to parent our biological children? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Benjamin\u00a0Lange. In my recent JME paper, Moral Parenthood: Not Gestational, I challenge the idea that the moral right to parent our biological children should be grounded by appeal to the value of the intimate emotional relationship that gestation facilitates between a newborn and a gestational procreator. This issue is important because it addresses one [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2024\/10\/24\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-24T11:18:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-25T14:36:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hazem Zohny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hazem Zohny\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/24\\\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/24\\\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hazem Zohny\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e73152f6aa4e164c7d625d77cf4fed35\"},\"headline\":\"What is the ground of the moral right to parent our biological children?\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-24T11:18:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-25T14:36:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/24\\\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":245,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Parenthood\",\"Pregnancy\",\"Reproduction\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/24\\\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/24\\\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/24\\\/what-is-the-ground-of-the-moral-right-to-parent-our-biological-children\\\/\",\"name\":\"What is the ground of the moral right to parent our biological children? 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