or millennia children have been valued as possessions valued by their parents as my child and valued by communities and cultures as ‘belonging’ to them. Recently, a new way of valuing children has emerged valuing them as people in possession of themselves, as people who have rights. This has led to fears that rights will erode love between parents and children, and separate children from their communities and cultures.
Childhood and Human Value explains why people feel this way and argues that they are mistaken. Adults in modern societies have separation anxieties about children’s rights, because they are used to measuring human value against a standard of ‘separateness’. The more separate you appear to be from the opinions and control of others, the more valuable you seem.
