Example Of Licensing Parents Essay

The reason LaFollette feels we have a reliable procedure for determining whether someone is competent to be a parent is because our society has developed procedures and requirements that are able to measure competence. All activities that have the potential of destroying another life or property are subjected to licensing procedures. Since there are proven cases of poor parentage where parents have caused harm to their children through either physical or psychological abuse, LaFollette is rightly justified to feel that we need a procedure that determines whether one is fit to be entrusted with a child (Gil, 34). The benefits of parenthood significantly outweigh the damage caused by poor parenting, and therefore it is impossible to sacrifice the whole parenting institution. A parental licensing program will help reduce damage caused by poor parenting by ensuring minimal requirements are met by potential parents. It is important to note that a parental licensing program will not test all the aspects required to be a responsible parent and hence it does not fully eliminate abuses caused by parents among children. It will however provide a platform where certain forms of child abuse could be avoided or their severity significantly reduced.
Moreover, LaFollette believes that we could implement such a parent licensing program without necessarily violating individual and corporate rights. Anti-parent licensing crusaders may argue that everyone has a right to start a family and have children of their own, or adopt a child from adoption agencies. This is true yes, but like all other rights like freedom of speech and freedom of religion must be regulate in order to rid them of abusers. Since having children of your own does not give you license to abuse them, then it goes without saying that measures must be put in place to ensure that no one parent is allowed to abuse their children; whether a biological parent or an adopting parent. The department of child services already prescribes stiff penalties for abusive parents, therefore implementing a parent licensing program would not violate any one’s rights as the program will utilise the already established measures. Moreover, a parent licensing program would ensure protection of fundamental rights of children as well as curbing lawlessness in the community. This is because children that have been abused tend to also abuse their children as well as turning to crime and other anti-social vices. The psychological damage caused by parental abuse tends to have lifetime consequences that spill over to other members of a community.
Another aspect of a person’s life that may be violated by a parent licensing program is right to privacy. In order to fully implement a parent licensing program, the licensing authority must have access to detailed information in order to judge whether one is fit enough to be a good parent or not. Due to the complex nature of determining what makes a good parent, a detailed profile is required which is only possible when one has access to a person’s private information. However, if conducted professionally, it does not necessarily have to be a violation of one’s privacy. The parent licensing procedure could be implemented in a similar fashion as other professional practices where confidentiality is exercised.
Those who fail parent licensing tests may feel that their right to parentage has been denied. This however is not necessarily the case because since the objective is to curb child abuse prevention may be the best course of action. As discussed earlier, the parent licensing program would not be 100% accurate and therefore those who fail the test would be allowed to repeat the tests in the future. There could be sponsored counselling and therapy where those who rightly fail the test can seek help and come back qualified and ready to raise children. These procedures and measures would ensure that not only are competent and responsible parents allowed to have children, but also that those who fail the tests are given more chances to prove their cases. Therefore, there will be no violation of the right to have children and those who feel that there is a violation are not competent enough to be parents and hence for the sake of the safety of the children, it’s good to exercise prior restraint to such individuals.
My argument here is against LaFollette’s assertion that we have a reliable procedure for determining whether someone is competent enough to be a parent. The following are my arguments these assertions.
First objection is that the procedure of obtaining a parental license would be marred by corruption, favouritism, nepotism and discrimination. Since the desire to have children is a personal and sentimental issues, an officer in charge of ensuring people pass the license tests may be blinded by emotion and ignore important factors. An officer may also deny someone a license because they don’t like that person. An example of discrimination is where a female officer who was neglected by her father or abandoned by her boyfriend after being impregnated may have a negative attitude towards male parents.
The second objection is a lack of reliable techniques to measure the quality of parenthood. The criteria to follow in deciding what constitutes a good parent are the greatest challenge to parent licensing. This is because most attributes that make a good parent, like love, cannot be reasonably measured. Unlike other licensing programs like driving where there are practical ways to evaluate competencies, parent licensing requires an in depth analysis of an individual’s psychology.
The third objection is lack of corrective measures for licensed bad parents. The question we ask ourselves here is; what do we do if the licensed parents turn out to be not good parents? Children are not pets that can be relocated or returned if their biological parents become abusive. They can be placed in foster homes but this a complex and usually traumatic exercise which cannot relied upon as a contingency plan (Gil, 116).
The fourth objection involves the cultural differences that exist in our society. Different people have different beliefs and attitudes towards family. Therefore it would be inaccurate to insinuate that we can come up with a parent licensing program that satisfies everyone’s cultural, ethical, intellectual and religious beliefs. Another issue to consider is an individual’s sexual orientation which in some culture may or may not determine good parenthood.
The fifth objection is the difficulty in predicting human social behaviour. A person’s attitude and behaviour towards other people and towards children who do not belong to him/her cannot be used to predict their behaviour towards their own children. This is because there is a unique bond between a parent and their children which may cause people with no positive record in handling children find a way of being good parents.

Work Cited

Gil, David. Violence Against Children. Harvard University Press, 1970.