- Jan 1, 2005
- 772
- 47
or even to 'respect' them (on the basis that they are their parents)? Children owe their parents nothing, they never asked to be created (which their parents did for their own selfish reasons). Parents aren't doing their children a favor by providing them with food, clothing, shelter etc., they are the reason why they need these things to begin with. I've never understood how parents can be angry with their child or resentful towads them as though they seriously did not know what they were getting into (or at least could have been getting into) when they chose to make a new person, nobody forced them to procreate. Unless there was a mutual and consensual agreement between parent and child for the child to be born, children are not morally obligated to recognize their parent's authority.
If you create a sentient being, it is your moral obligation to satisfy their needs regardless of how old they are. You are responsible for their needs regardless of whether or not they are capable of satifying them themselves. It is not unjust to not take care of the children you create, for example, I don't think fathers should be forced to pay child support, but it is immoral. The attitude that children are supposed to be 'grateful' to their parents is bizarre. Life is not a gift as there would have to be a pre-existing person who wanted to be born for your having been born to be considered a benefit to you.
If you create a sentient being, it is your moral obligation to satisfy their needs regardless of how old they are. You are responsible for their needs regardless of whether or not they are capable of satifying them themselves. It is not unjust to not take care of the children you create, for example, I don't think fathers should be forced to pay child support, but it is immoral. The attitude that children are supposed to be 'grateful' to their parents is bizarre. Life is not a gift as there would have to be a pre-existing person who wanted to be born for your having been born to be considered a benefit to you.