What Is A Family? A Constitutive-Affirmative Account

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Bio-heteronormative conceptions of the family have long reinforced a nuclear ideal of the family as a heterosexual marriage, with children who are the genetic progeny of that union. This ideal, however, has also long been resisted in light of recent social developments, exhibited through the increased incidence and acceptance of step-families, donor-conceived families, and so forth. Although to this end some might claim that the bio-heteronormative ideal is not necessary for a social unit to count as a family, a more systematic conceptualization of the family—the kind of family that matters morally—is relatively underexplored in the philosophical literature. This paper makes a start at developing and defending an account of the family that is normatively attractive and in line with the growing prevalence of non-conventional families and methods of family-formation. Our account, which we call a constitutive-affirmative model of the family, takes the family to be constituted by an ongoing process of relevant affective and affirmative relations between the putative family members.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2024-03-26

Downloads
107 (#199,965)

6 months
89 (#69,216)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Ezio Di Nucci
University of Copenhagen
Ji-Young Lee
University of Copenhagen

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Best Available Parent.Anca Gheaus - 2021 - Ethics 131 (3):431-459.
Family History.J. David Velleman - 2005 - Philosophical Papers 34 (3):357-378.

View all 22 references / Add more references