Laura Purdy

Children’s Rights

Three basic kinds of questions occupy those who study children’s rights from a philosophical perspective. First, what moral standing do children have: Do they, like some animals, merely elicit duties on the part of others, or do they have interests of the sort that generate rights? Second, if they do have rights, what rights do they have? In particular, do they have a distinctive set of rights, perhaps changing over time as they develop? Or are they born with, or acquire, the same rights as adults? And third, would some entirely different model of the relationship between children and adults make more sense than these two? For example, would it be better to think in terms of parental accountability, the cultivation of harmonious parent–child relationships, or an organic community?