LaFollette: Licensing Parents

Why do we allow just anybody to become a parent? Because parenting is a huge responsibility. It means raising another human to be happy, good, and whole. It means caring, providing, nurturing, and protecting. Parenthood is generally considered to be one of the most demanding experiences anybody can go through, and yet anybody who is biologically able can become a parent. We allow anybody to take on this huge responsibility. According to the philosopher Hugh LaFollette, this is all wrong. And instead we should introduce a parent license. LaFollette bases his argument on two facts. The first is that there is such a thing as good or bad parenting. There are certain skills or abilities you need to parent well. And the second fact is that bad parenting has the potential to do huge harm, both to children and to society. At the extreme level, this manifests in abuse and lifelong trauma. But even at the less extreme, absent or neglectful parenting can massively harm the mental well-being and development of another human being. And so, from these two facts, LaFollette argues that the skills needed for parenting are not natural to all or even to most human beings. We need to train somebody to have the emotional and practical abilities to parent well. And so LaFollette compares parenting to other licenses: being a doctor or driving a car or practicing law. So, what do you think? Do you think we should demand that parents have licenses before we allow them to have kids? Or do you think this is a violation of their natural rights? Or do you think the entire thing is unworkable anyway?