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Document Details :

Title: The Paradox of Our Desire for Children
Author(s): VAN TONGEREN, Paul
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 2    Issue: 2   Date: june 1995   
Pages: 55-62
DOI: 10.2143/EP.2.2.563061

Abstract :
Today the problem of responsible parenthood is frequently reduced to the question of whether or not a couple actually desires to have a child. In medical circles the same question is reduced even further to a choice between various forms of medical assistance available to a couple who might desire to have a child, but who have been unsuccessful in their own efforts. As a counterbalance to this narrowing process, it would seem appropriate to ask a number of questions which in fact ought to precede it: Why do we want children in the first place? What are we really looking for in our desire to have children?

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