Related Ideas

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How do a parent's obligations to an infant arise? It may be that by the free act of taking the infant home and placing it in a dependent position the parents acquire obligations to it (and perhaps the infant acquires a right to their support). How far does this obligation extend? To the normal requirements of life, growth, and socialization? The principle seems to be that if we cause a being that can be harmed to be in a position of dependence on us, we acquire obligations to it.

Could similar reasoning be applied to an unborn child? This might mean that if a pregnant woman freely chose to carry her child beyond some point, she acquires a duty to support it and it acquires a right to her support. If so, what is that point? (And remember that only certain kinds of beings can have rights.)

Some of the points made here assume that we can agree on what it means to say that a woman freely chose to become pregnant (or to carry a child beyond some point). Based on the degree of freedom, we can then assign to her a degree of responsibility and certain obligations to her child. How would you define a free choice, especially the choice to have sex or to become pregnant?

We could define sexual intercourse as free or voluntary if it does not occur under the threat of violence. By this definition most sex is voluntary. But suppose we define sex as free only if it occurs within a relationship in which a man and a woman share power equally? Or within a culture in which men and women share power equally? How would you define a free or voluntary act? Can you give reasons for accepting one definition rather than another?