That children have a right to be loved is a claim that can be found in many international declarations. But there are a number of foundational concerns regarding whether children can have this right. For instance, are children rightholders? Rightholding, according to a popular view, should be ascribed only to actual agents. Are children, in particular infants, actual agents? In addition, the interests of children in nutrition, shelter, and education may be important enough to ground rights, but is a child’s interest in being loved comparably important? Why would this interest be important enou ... More

That children have a right to be loved is a claim that can be found in many international declarations. But there are a number of foundational concerns regarding whether children can have this right. For instance, are children rightholders? Rightholding, according to a popular view, should be ascribed only to actual agents. Are children, in particular infants, actual agents? In addition, the interests of children in nutrition, shelter, and education may be important enough to ground rights, but is a child’s interest in being loved comparably important? Why would this interest be important enough to justify a right to be loved? Moreover, it is far from obvious that someone could have a duty to love someone else, especially if love is an emotion. Suppose that children have a right to be loved. Who has the duty to love them? A natural response might be that this duty belongs to the biological parents. But what happens if the biological parents of a particular child are dead? Also, there is ample evidence that some biological parents are inadequate parents. Should we require biological parents to demonstrate certain competence and character before they are permitted to parent their biological children? Finally, millions of children are in institutional care. Is there a duty to adopt and provide love for these children? If so, who has this duty? This book argues that children have a right to be loved by answering these questions. It also considers some policy implications of this right.