Let Your Kids Grow Up Ethical Analysis

Win Ma

PH-211: Ethics

Jo Jo Koo

“Let Your Kids Grow Up”: Kantian, Utilitarian, and Virtue Ethics Response to Parental-Child Upbringing of the Disabled

It is common for parents to make their children become independent when the children reach adulthood. However, disabled children’s parents are hesitant to let their children become independent. To see what the parent should do I consider responses from three ethical systems: Kantian Ethics, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics. As I will show, all three ethics show disabled children’s parents should make their child independent. However, I will then argue the utilitarian position is more persuasive. Finally I will give my personal opinion about why I value independence. The utilitarian advises parents to follow the principle of utility. For this case, the principle of utility says parents should optimize their children’s wellbeing. (Shafer-Landau, 119) Utilitarians would acknowledge the parents’ concerns that the disabled children may be harmed. A blind child could get easily robbed if he or she were not careful. However, pampering children for eternity would actually lead to worse consequences. First, even if the parent-dependent life is more pleasurable, children not

Let me first describe how Virtue Ethics is not persuasive. Virtue Ethics demands what we should be as opposed to what we should do. (Shafer-Landau, 252) Unless the virtuous parent possesses the same disabilities as their child, he or she cannot appreciate their child’s disabilities. You may claim the child inherited the disability from the parent and so the virtuous parent does appreciate the child’s disabilities. However, this leads to the controversial claim that disabilities are hereditary. We dispute this claim from biological and social considerations so the Virtue Ethicist must provide scientific explanations. This is outside Virtue Ethics’