Volume 17, Number 4 · September 23, 1971
What Rights Should Children Have?
By Paul Goodman
Children are an awkward subject for politics. Essays 'toward the liberation of the child,' the subtitle of the well-rounded collection of essays on Children's Rights,[*] always take contradictory tacks. Children should have 'rights as full human beings,' no different from those of adults: they should be able to vote, make contracts, and presumably commit felonies, just as adults do. On the contrary, runs another argument, they should have very special rights and immunities because they are children; their rights should fit their 'stage of growth.' Some say that the oppressive society of adults has so damaged the children that we must now provide them with remedial attention; on the contrary, say others, the best thing we adults can do is to get off their backs.
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