Shaping Values

Abstract

Where parents’ right to confer advantage raises questions about distributions between families, their right to shape their children’s values mainly raises issues concerning conflicts of interest within the family. Although third parties are also affected by the way that children are parented, and in ways that limit parents’ rights to influence their children’s beliefs and attitudes, the focus here will be on the need to protect children from excessive parental influence, while respecting the interest that both parents and children have in the right kind of parent-child relationship. The thrust of our argument will be to challenge widespread views about