Publisher's Synopsis
To what extent should we be responsible for our children? What is the nature of the debt we owe to our parents? How far should the state involve itself with these matters? This book sets out to examine these moral issues from a number of perspectives, but it is primarily concerned with the role of contemporary social policy in defining and enforcing the responsibilities of parents to their offspring during childhood and of adult offspring to their parents during old age. - - The book adopts a critical stance which questions the extent to which reciprocal liabilities between parents and children are or should be biologically determined. It is argued that, while the function of social policy is to protect the vulnerable, it must also so far as possible enable people to define for themselves and to fulfil their familial duties and debts. The book contains chapters contributed by specialists from a number of fields, but these are brought together through a central focus upon contemporary controversies and policy issues. In the compass of a single volume issues relating to the care and maintenance of children are situated alongside and in context with those relating to social care for old people. Similarly, questions about state protection are situated alongside and in context with questions about state control. The strength of this collection lies in its breadth on the one hand, but also in its ground breaking attempt to synthesise different strands of analysis into coherent focus. - - Not only is this book highly topical and relevant, it also addresses questions arising from very different areas of policy and professional practice. The study of family policy is difficult because family policy (especially in the UK) is itself so fragmented and ill defined: this book makes an original contribution which allows the reader to explore certain underlying themes and reflect upon the potential for certain unifying principles.
