Should parenting be licensed?
“Most people think it’s obvious that we have a right to procreate and raise children. In fact, many people think reproductive rights are among the most important rights we have… However, undertaking to raise a child is an act with vast consequences, for good or ill—far greater than those that result from driving a car, for example. Yet society requires a license to make certain that people are at least capable of driving safely, let alone practice medicine and law or give psychological counseling. Why, then, shouldn’t parenting be an activity that also requires a license or some sort of assurance of minimal competence, as much as driving or counseling should be?”1
In his article “Licensing Parents,” Hugh LaFollette suggests that “we should require a license for activities that: (1) have a high potential to harm innocent people, (2) require some competence to perform, and where we (3) have a generally reliable method for determining that competence beforehand
