Parenthood and the Concept of the Biological Tie

Abstract

It is widely assumed that there is value in the biological tie between parent and child. An implication of this is that adoption is often considered less desirable than procreation. This paper offers a philosophical defense of adoptive parenthood as a valuable and authentic form of parenthood. While previous defenses have suggested that society’s valorisation of the biological tie is unjustified, I argue herein that the conception of the biological tie that features in the normative discourse on parenthood is too narrowly genocentric. Against this genocentric conception, work in the philosophy of biology has emphasised the roles of joint determination by multiple causes, extended inheritance, and development as construction, which I suggest can substantiate a more inclusive conception of the biological tie. Accordingly, I propose that adoptive parents form a rich variety of biological ties with their children, some of which are as enduring and formative as genetic relatedness.