PHIL20550 Family, Ethics and Law

Academic Year 2020/2021

This module comprises a sustained philosophical, ethical and legal examination of some issues relating to the family in modern Western society. We will examine some basic principles of family law (from Irish and other jurisdictions) as expressing societal values about different aspects of family life, and we will discuss the different ways that the state can authorise, monitor and intrude in marriage and divorce, death and inheritance, birth and childcare. We will ask what parents owe their children (and whether parents should be licensed like drivers and doctors), what adult children owe their elderly parents (and whether to make this a legal requirement), what spouses owe each other (should the state do more to prevent domestic abuse?). We will compare biological reproduction, adoption and surrogacy, and how these relate to definitions of the family and of parenthood. We will also examine how power and oppression works within families, and between families and communities, especially in supporting gender discrimination.