University Park, Pa. -- Penn State Press's new anthology, "Having and Raising Children: Unconventional Families, Hard Choices, and the Social Good," looks at familial relationships between parents and children and challenges a number of important moral, social and political issues.
Edited by Julia J. Bartkowiak and Uma Narayan, the book addresses topics such as the rights of unwed fathers, the nature of children's autonomy, children's rights to divorce their parents, parental rights with respect to medical treatment and religious education of children, surrogate parenting, same-sex parenting and single-parent families.
- Iris Marion Young's article," Mothers, Citizenship and Independence: A Critique of Pure Family Values," argues against views that regard the "intact two-parent heterosexual family" as the preferred family form.
- In "Fathers' Rights, Mothers' Wrongs -- Reflections on Unwed Fathers' Rights and Sex Equality," Mary L. Shanley examines the issue of fathers' rights in legal contexts where unwed biological fathers attempt to reverse the biological mother's decision to place the child up for adoption.
- Uma Narayan explores a variety of criticisms leveled at the practice of commercial surrogacy in "Family Ties: Rethinking Parental Claims in the Light of Surrogacy and Custody."
- In "A Parent(ly) Knot: Can Heather Have Two Mommies?" Shelley A.M. Gavigan looks at the ramifications of "family ideology" with respect to the families of lesbian parents and legal responses to conflicts over parental rights in lesbian households.
- Brenda Almond's "Family Relationships and Reproductive Technology" argues for the view that it would be a mistake to assume that biological parenthood has no significance.
- Anita Allen's "Privacy and Equal Protection as Bases for Abortion Law: Citizenship, Gender, and the Constitution" revisits the controversial territory of abortion rights-rights that are crucial to women having a say in whether and when to enter into a parental relationship with a child.
- In "Circumscribed Autonomy: Children, Care, and Custody," Hugh LaFollette distinguishes between questions about the intellectual and volitional abilities of children and questions how parents and legal institutions should relate to children's choices and desires.
- Laura M. Purdy also argues that, under certain circumstances, children should be provided with some choices concerning their own lives. In "Boundaries of Authority: Should Children Be Able to Divorce Their Parents?" Purdy reviews various current positions on children's rights, focusing in particular on children's rights to "divorce" their parents.
- In "Regulating Sexuality: Gender Identity Disorder, Children's Rights, and the State," Ellen K. Feder examines the problematic bases for the psychiatric diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (GID), and reveals the troublesome ways in which it is used to "treat" the behavior of children whose only "problem" is that they violate social stereotypes of masculine and feminine behavior.
- While Feder focuses on children who are needlessly subject to psychiatric and medical treatment, in "Protecting Faith Versus Protecting Futures: Religious Freedom and Parental Rights in Medical Decision Making for Children," Lynn Pasquerella focuses on the converse issue of children who are denied the medical treatment they need or forced to endure medically futile treatment against their will because of their parent's religious commitments.
- Lastly, "Fear of God: Religious Education of Children and the Social Good" by Julia J. Bartkowiak deals with a different set of tensions between religious freedom, parental rights, and the social good. Bartkowiak examines the possible consequence that some children might be raised with a very narrow and intolerant worldview because of parental influence.
The book is cloth: $47.50; paper: $17.95. The Penn State Press web site is at www.psu.edu/psupress
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