Re: Taking Children Seriously

From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Thu Jul 10 2003 - 19:34:16 MDT

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    Peter McCluskey writes about http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~tcs/:

    > But I'm unconvinced by the TCS claims about what obligations parents
    > have towards their children, as illustrated by this attitude towards
    > carnivorous children:
    >
    > The vegetarian who believes that meat eating ought to be legal ought
    > to buy it for their child and give them the respect they would give
    > another human being.
    >
    > I didn't see any argument that this view is better than the more standard
    > view that the parental payment for the food gives them substantial
    > authority to influence what their children eat, just as it would if they
    > were feeding adult friends. Did anyone see an argument that I missed?

    I don't think that someone feeding adult friends on a long-term basis
    does in fact have the authority to influence what they eat, especially
    if for some reason the friends can't leave (say, they are disabled and
    under the care of the food-preparer).

    Parents are financially obligated to their children, hence the parents'
    payments for child-related expenses must be counted against those
    obligations and don't have the same status as payments offered freely
    and voluntarily.

    Hal



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