This work takes an ordinary language approach to the question of parental rights in order to try to disentangle some of the problems, theoretical and practical, which arise when we try to decide between the various rights claims which arise in relation to the family. Family relationships are always complex; however, the challenges presented by non-nuclear families and artificial reproductive technologies place new demands upon traditional ways of thinking about the legal and moral relationships between parents, children and society. At the same time the use of rights-language has proliferated and courts must therefore juggle complex claims and counter claims. This expansive use of rights-language can lead to misunderstandings about the nature of rights and rights-claims. If these misunderstandings are imported into the technical spheres of law and philosophy this may lead to a further clouding of rights theory. This in turn allows us to become entangled in seemingly irresolvable conflicts of right A significant portion of this work addresses two traditional approaches to parental rights in order to show why these models fail to give us an adequate account of parental rights, it is argued that this failure is in part due to linguistic confusions and in paJi to theoretical ones. At the close, I offer a model which allows us to judge whether or not a rights-claim is successful. This success is measured, not in the right being met, but in the claim made succeeding as a rights-claim. Whether or not a rights-claim is viewed as a right in fact will depend upon the context in which it is made. This model applies to rights in general and as such may help us to begin to disentangle the knot of claims and counter claims we find in relation to the family.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:658600 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Hitchen, Sarah Anne |
| Publisher | Lancaster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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