Parental virtue: a new way of thinking about the morality of reproductive actions.
In this paper I explore the potential of virtue ethical ideas to generate a new way of thinking about the ethical questions surrounding the creation of children. Applying ideas from neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics to the parental sphere specifically, I develop a framework for the moral assessment of reproductive actions that centres on the concept of parental virtue. I suggest that the character traits of the good parent can be used as a basis for determining the moral permissibility of a particular reproductive action. I posit three parental virtues and argue that we can see the moral status of a reproductive action as determined by the relationship between such an action and (at least) these virtues. Using a case involving selection for deafness, I argue that thinking in terms of the question 'would a virtuous parent do this?' when morally assessing reproductive action is a viable and useful way of thinking about issues in reproductive ethics.
McDougall
Rosalind
R
Centre for Health and Society, 207 Bouverie St, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. r.mcdougall@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
D003638:Deafness / Q000151:congenital; D006801:Humans; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010684:Philosophy; D012098:Reproduction / Q000941:ethics*; D028722:Virtues