PARENTAL LICENSING Adapted from Schacter, Gilbert, & Wegner (2009).
When the practice of a profession or calling requires special knowledge or skill and intimately
affects public health, morals, safety, or general welfare, legislature may prescribe reasonable
qualifications for persons desiring to pursue such professions or calling and require them to
demonstrate possession of such qualifications by examination.
The above excerpt of United States common law recognizes the importance of licensing in the interest of public
welfare. Most of us would likely agree that people who want to operate automobiles, use firearms, pilot aircraft,
practice law, or perform medical procedures should be required to demonstrate their proficiency and obtain a
license. After all, if people were allowed to practice these professions without first demonstrating their knowledge
and skill, the public welfare would be gravely compromised.
Following from this logic, one might ask, why not apply this reasoning to parenting? Why not outlaw reproduction
by people who are not able to qualify for a parenting license? You may be surprised to learn that that this
argument has become the subject of serious debate from ethicists who are trying to decide how best to balance
the interest of parents against the damage that bad parenting can do (Tittle, 2004; Warnock, 2003). Several
arguments against parental licensing are obvious:
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People have a fundamental right to reproduce. No one, including the government should infringe upon this
fundamental human right.
Reproduction is a private affair and thus does should not be subject to any governmental regulation or
interference.
The term “good parenting” is subjective. People have different definitions of “good parenting,” and we must
recognize that the government is far from the best entity to provide a definition of “good parenting.”
Licensing would invite abuse by governments. Unscrupulous governments would have a way to limit the
reproduction of citizens who have the “wrong” genes, “wrong” skin color, or “wrong” political or religious
beliefs.
For most people, parental licensing is a ridiculous and dangerous idea. Americans are naturally suspicious of
governmental intrusion into private affairs. After all, what could be more private than the decision to have a child?
And yet some of the arguments are not easily dismissed. Consider the following arguments in favor of parental
licensing:
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Bad flossing is a private affair. Bad parenting is not. Every one of us pays the price when parents abuse,
neglect, or fail to educate their children. Bad parents impose significant social and economic burdens on the
rest of society. Society has a clear interest in preventing abusive and negligent parenting.
Licensing is not meant to prevent potentially bad parents from having children. Rather, it is meant to make
bad parents into good parents. Driver’s education turns potentially bad drivers into good drivers, but most
people would not enroll in driver’s education if they were not required to do so in order to qualify for a driver’s
license. Licensing would motivate people to learn the things that every parent should know.
If we demanded that people meet certain standards before they adopt children, then why should we not
demand that they meet the same standards before being allowed to bear children? Are biological children
worth less than adopted children?
All licensing systems are open to abuse. But is there any reason to believe that this one would be more open
to abuse than others? Are the costs of parental licensing abuse clearly greater than the costs of having no
licensing system at all?
Parental licensing may sound frightening, but bad parenting can have detrimental consequences for children and
society. Is parental licensing the solution or another just another problem?
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2009). Parental licensing. In Psychology (p. 445). New York:
Worth Publishers.
Title, P. (2004). Should parents be licensed?: Debating the issues. New York: Prometheus Books.
Warnock, M. (2003). Making babies: Is there a right to have children? Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.