The worth of a child

the long version

In this graceful and humane book, Thomas Murray illuminates one of the most morally complex areas of everyday life: the relationship between parents and children. What do children mean to their parents? How far do parental obligations go? What social arrangements and technologies used in conceiving, gestating, and rearing children are ethical? What, from the beginning of life to its end, is the worth of a child? Murray leaves the rarefied air of abstract moral philosophy to reflect on the perplexities of ordinary life and ordinary people. He maintains that ethical theory needs a richer description than it now has of the moral life of parents and children, one that captures the complexity of motives for having and rearing children, and the significance of children in the lives of adults. These issues lead Murray into explorations of some of the most contentious moral and technical problems of our time, among them fertility technologies, prenatal testing, adoption, and abortion.