The Best Available Parent

"Parental status comes with a great deal of legal control over a particularly vulnerable human being, and states grant it automatically to procreators, with no preliminary checks. Surely, people in general very much want to raise their offspring. A child, however, is a person (in the making), that is, not someone who may be used as mere means to advance other people's projects."

"A child, however, is a person (in the making), that is, not someone who may be used as mere means to advance other people's projects. One may exercise control over a person either with their permission-not the case with newborns!-or because it is in the best interest of the person whose life is controlled. If so, a particular adult's right to control the life of a particular child should be justified by the latter's best interest in having that guardian."

Parental status confers significant legal control over a particularly vulnerable human being, and states typically assign it automatically to biological procreators without preliminary checks. Newborns cannot consent, so authority over them requires justification based on their best interests. The moral right to parent should therefore function as a liberty right held by the person or persons who, among those committed to parenting, would most benefit the child through parental authority, within limits of justice. This account grounds default parental rights in the child's welfare and notes that newborns are usually already in relationships with their gestational mothers and possibly involved partners.

Read at Apaonline