Procreative Responsibility in View of What Parents Owe Their Children

Under what circumstances is it morally responsible to procreate with the intention of having children, in view of what parents owe their children? Three conditions are necessary for procreation to be morally responsible: the worthwhile-life condition, the doing-more condition, and the basic-needs condition. The worthwhile-life condition requires that a life be expected to be worth starting in the sense that existence is not noncomparatively bad for its subject, containing much that is bad without offsetting compensations. The doing-more condition requires that parents do more for their children than the worthwhile-life condition requires, if they can do so without undue sacrifice. The basic-needs condition provides that parents owe their children efforts to ensure that their basic needs or essential interests are met. Other considerations about the intentions of the parents are relevant to responsible procreation but do not bear on the parents’ responsibilities to the child.