I'm currently teaching my Ethics of Public Policy module, which has just moved on to discussing sex and family life. One issue that we look at is parental licensing - as proposed by Hugh LaFollette.
I've seen, but not yet read, this recent paper by Liam Shields, which unfortunately was too late to be included on my reading list. I might make it an additional recommendation for the students, since we've recently discussed harm reduction in other contexts (e.g. drugs and prostitution).
My reason for posting is seeing this tragic story today, concerning a mother whose neglect led to the death of her 13-year-old daughter in 2018. She's received a prison sentence of wilful ill treatment and neglect, but was cleared of culpable homicide.
Her own solicitor described her as "a lady who clearly has difficulties both mentally and physically, impacting on her ability in how to view things and the consequences of actions or omissions and I think that lies at the root of her culpability in this case", as a result it seems of a traumatic brain injury in her own childhood.
I don't know the full details of the case, including whether or not she was a single parent (I see no mention of this in the BBC article), but I do wonder whether someone who cannot be held responsible for the death of a child in her care should be in the position of primary caregiver in the first place. Perhaps there's something to the licensing proposal after all. In any case, this is a handy recent example to discuss.
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