Very true. As a side-line, I'm not talking about this as if it should be a law. I want to make that clear. Logical moral reasoning influences law to a very small degree because law isn't there to enforce morality, it's there to keep society functioning. If that happens to invoke shared moral laws (in order to keep people happy) then fine, but just because a moral law has been proven doesn't mean it'll be realised as legal law. I've not read any objection to Mill's moral law that one has a duty to emancipate slaves, regardless of whether or not they made the choice to be slaves, if we have a duty to human liberty, yet slavery still goes on in Africa and I don't see us rushing to make laws forcing them to emancipate their slaves. That's because it's not practical. Pissing of a major superpower by trampling all over their country (regardless of whether we're in the moral right) isn't a good way to preserve a society. Legality =/= morality. I know that's not relevant to anything you've said, but there's been a lot of confusion regarding that point by several posters throughout this thread.alinos said:Because thats plain not good for the child's emotional wellbeing in the future a parent who regards you as a mistake he cant get rid of isnt postive. and doesnt have to put it up for adoption really just abandon it somewhere
In light of the above quoted point I temporarily rescind my argument whilst I think this through. I need to come up with a way that we can prevent a parent from birthing the child and then just putting it up for adoption. Perhaps we could say that the parent has to make it explicit when they lay claim to the child whether they intend to raise it or put it up for adoption. If it's the latter then both parents must agree. This isn't a perfect solution because I can think of no reason that the parent who'd previously refused to consent to birthing the child would now suddenly change their mind when adoption is raised as the reason.
This is a good objection. None of the 'pregnancy is worse for the mother than the father' arguments work because I can always fall back on 'that's evolution for you, she knew this when she risked getting pregnant'.alinos said:so the woman might think oh well there the morning after pill or if she forgot for some reason she can abort it then the clinic turns around and says we need the fathers permission we go get dear old dad and he goes w8 your pregnant i want the child
However, what you've shown here is that, in the modern day and age, even sex which leads to conception isn't necessarily followed by pregnancy. That's good, it undermines my entire logical argument. Very well, I must now redefine the argument: it is now the duty of whichever parent objects to the pregnancy to demand a termination via the pill after a night of unprotected sex. This demand will trump the other parent's desire to keep the child, since implicit in even unprotected sex (these days) is the fact that there's always the pill as a retroactive contraception. Going into sex both knew this (presumably, the morning after pill is common knowledge) so both implicitly agree that the other partner may be expecting it to be utilized.
If neither parent demands that the pill be used and no contraception was worn then the old rules apply.