Between the gift and the contract: The new paternal-filial bond and its relation to the political challenge of birth

Abstract

At the phenomenon of low birth rates in a big part of theWestern world, the present work seeks to explore the existence of a change in the paternal-filial bond that could help to explain this decrease. The thesis is that, in the last half century, the relationship between parents and children has acquired the features of a contract, a transformation related to the introduction of technology in the area of procreation. This change in the way of understanding paternity and children filiation would affect the decision to have children, so studying it seems a good way to face the political challenge of birth.