Legal Conceptions of Parenthood: Adoptive Parents as Stewards

In this paper, I outline common conceptions of parenthood and assess the strengths and weaknesses of these models, including the proprietarian, consent, causal, and stewardship models. In what follows, each type of parenthood is evaluated for 1) its description of how a parent comes to be or 2) its normative claims about how a parent should act in regard to their child throughout the child’s life. After weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each conception, I conclude that the stewardship view is the most successful conception of parenthood not only because of its description of what makes a parent a parent, but because it the robust normative account it offers regarding what makes a parent a good parent throughout the life of the child. After making this case, I then apply this ideal model to adoptive parents in order to illustrate that these parents are just as, if not better, suited to be parents than the traditional biological parent is

IVF Battles: Legal Categories and Comparative Tales

Coupled with modern reproductive technologies, the ancient desire for parenthood has led to novel legal challenges. This essay discusses landmark cases addressing those challenges. At the outset, it distinguishes between two litigation paradigms in this area—termed “horizontal” and “vertical.” Horizontal controversies involve private parties who have different aspirations regarding a joint parenthood project (e.g., between two partners who began an IVF procedure and later disagree whether to complete the process). In contrast, vertical controversies concern clashes between an individual (or individuals) and the state, such as when the state or one of its authorities does not allow the individual to move forward with technologies that may lead to parenthood (e.g., new surrogacy procedures), though all affected individuals consent. The essay then focuses on horizontal litigation, and examines the ways in which various legal systems draw on, and sometimes adjust to the particular circumstances of the case, traditional concepts such as contract, reliance, property, and more to resolve such disputes

Study achievement for students with kids

In this paper we explore the composition of students, the study length towards diploma, and examine the likelihood of diploma, all with respect to parenthood. Few get children while enrolled in higher education, nevertheless one fourth of female university students in Sweden has children. In Sweden as in many other countries enrollment periods have been prolonged and allocated to later parts of life. Using a large longitudinal register micro data set containing educational achievement we find that students with children seem to be somewhat more efficient in their studies among those who have graduated. Becoming parent speeds up ongoing studies but not studies that are initiated after entry into parenthood. We also find an indication that students with children have a lower dropout rate since their probability to register a diploma is higher, compared to students without children.Students; parenthood; education; study interruption

Repartnering: the relevance of parenthood and gender to cohabitation and remarriage among the formerly married

This paper is an exploratory analysis of the impact of current and anticipated parenthood on cohabitation and remarriage among those formerly living in marriage-type relationships. The focus on children is embedded within a broader analysis of repartnering which takes account of other factors, including gender. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are used, with a multivariate analysis of repartnering patterns, using data from the General Household Survey, being complementedby in-depth interview data examining the attitudes of the formerly married to future relationships. The paper demonstrates that parenthood has a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of formerly married women repartnering, with a higher number of children being associated with a lower probability of repartnering. The presence of children can work against repartnering in a variety of ways. Children place demands on their parents and can deter or object to potential partners. Parents may see their parental role as more important than, and a barrier to, new relationships. However, mothers are typically looking for partners for themselves rather than fathers for their children. Among formerly married people without children, the desire to become a parent encourages repartnering. The paper concludes that parenthood should be a key consideration in analyses of repartnering

Gender Equality, Parenthood Attitudes, and First Births in Sweden

We analyse Swedish survey data on attitudes about parenthood among young adults aged 22-30 in 1999, and examine who became parents over the next four years. Our results show that while both men and women perceive more benefits to parenthood than costs, men are more likely than women to perceive both negative and positive consequences of parenthood. Further, gender role attitudes shape parental attitudes differentially for men and women. More egalitarian men perceive fewer costs and more egalitarian women perceive fewer benefits than those with more traditional gender role attitudes. Our analyses of the transition to parenthood indicate that, even controlling assessments of the costs and benefits of children, men with more traditional attitudes were more likely to become fathers at an early age, while gender role attitudes had no effect on women’s transition to parenthood. In contrast, there were no gender differentials in the effects of costs and benefits, each of which strongly affected the transition to parenthood, but, of course, in opposite directions. We interpret these findings to indicate that even in a country as far into the Second Demographic Transition as Sweden, negotiating shared parenthood is still sufficiently difficult that it depresses fertility, but now because of its impact on men.

Migration and first-time parenthood

This article investigates the reproductive behavior of young women and men in the post-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, focusing on the link between migration and fertility. We employ event-history techniques to retrospective data from the ‘Marriage, Fertility, and Migration’ survey conducted in Northern Kyrgyzstan in 2005 to study patterns in first-time parenthood. We demonstrate the extent to which internal migration is related to family formation and to the patterns of becoming a parent after resettlement. We gain deeper insights into demographic behavior by considering information on factors such as the geographical destination of migration and retrospectively stated motives for reported moves. In addition, our study reveals clear ethno-cultural differences in the timing of entry into parenthood in Kyrgyzstan.fertility, internal migration, Kyrgyzstan, migration

Defending the Distinction Between Pregnancy and Parenthood

In this paper, I respond to criticisms toward my account of the difference in moral status between fetuses and newborns. I show my critics have not adequately argued for their view that pregnant women participate in a parent-child relationship. While an important counterexample is raised against my account, this counterexample had already been dealt with in my original paper. Because the criticisms against my account lack argumentative support, they do not pose a problem for my account. I conclude the raised criticisms do not amount to a strong philosophical case against my account

Working parenthood and parental obligation.

This article reports upon aspects of a small-scale qualitative study of low-income working families. The study was conducted in the context of recent policy changes in Britain that are intended to promote labour force participation by low-income parents, especially mothers. It is argued that while popular opinion is generally supportive of mothers taking paid employment, some deep-rooted ambivalence remains. Mothers in low-income families can experience the life-course transition involved as difficult in terms of the practical obstacles, the moral dilemmas and the ideological pressures. Without additional measures to support them in relation to their parental obligations low paid women are being pressed, at best, to exchange familial dependency for economic exploitation.

Does material disadvantage explain the increased risk of adverse health, educational, and behavioural outcomes among children in lone parent households in Britain? : a cross sectional study

Objective: To test the hypothesis that material disadvantage explains the increased risk among children and young people of adverse health, educational, and behavioural problems associated with living in lone parent households in Britain Study design: Secondary analysis of a cross sectional survey of a representative sample of British households with children and youth Main outcomes: Parent reported fair/poor health, longstanding illness and disability, statement of special educational needs, suspension and/or expulsion from school, and in trouble with the police. Participants: Data were available on 15 636 (8049 boys and 7587 girls) aged 0-18 years in 8541 households in the third sweep (2001) of the British government's families and children study Results: Lone parenthood was associated with increased risk of health and educational problems, and antisocial behaviour among boys and girls in a logistic regression model adjusting for child's age alone. Adding age of main carer, number of dependent children, and child's rank in the household made little difference to the associations. Addition of housing tenure, household hardship index, and an interaction term for lone parenthood and hardship eliminated the relation with lone parenthood for all outcomes except parent reported health among girls. Similar results were obtained for households headed by lone parents for at least a year. An interaction effect of lone parenthood with hardship for parent reported health and statement of special educational needs was noted. Conclusion: Adverse effects of lone parenthood on health, education, and antisocial behaviour were apparently explained by material disadvantage in this cross sectional sample of British households with children and youth