Parental Duties toward Severely Impaired Infants: An Ethical Analysis
Parents, ground down in some case~ by the stresses of caring for their severely impaired child , may decide to LUrn their offspring over to a state agency o r a private group. In doing so. do parents vio late their moral responsibilities? These s ituatio ns raise pro fo und q uestions about the moral responsibilities of parent:, which. a~ the Carnegie Council on Ch ildren writes, "society ha:-, never :,olved." 1 The fact that parent~ a re a llowed to surrender their chi ldren under a variety of circumstances does not make this a mora l practice. With the rise of chi ld advocacy movements. the moral c hallenge placed upon parents by a medica l technology that g ives life to infants who in othe r eras would have died in accord with the ba lance of nature, a nd the growing recognition that seriously impaired children generally de\ elop better in the atmos phere of love and securit) wh ich a family provides. rather than in large in~titutiom.. the time for moral deliberation is upon U-'>. What is thefbasis of parental responsibility in these ca.'>es. and whar are the limit~ of res po nsib ili t y. if any'?