Wanting Children

Thinking about autonomy and responsibility

Why do we even want to have our own children? Should we be able to decide which children to have and which ones not to have? Is it too late at some point to have children at all? Which technologies is it acceptable to use in order to have a child, and at what point are does it become ethically questionable? The philosopher Barbara Bleisch and the professor of law Andrea Büchler explore the intimate as well as socially fundamental subject of having children.

Whether we have children, when we have children and which children we have: in the past these decisions were made by fate. Today they are increasingly controllable. Taking into account a range of perspectives and arguments, and in an accessible style, this book examines the extent of our autonomy in reproduction and what responsibilities this new-found freedom entails – for future mothers and fathers, for our children and for us as a society.