Parental licensing is the idea that parenting competence should be demonstrated prior to adults achieving full parental rights. It is a long-standing idea that is alive among a host of academic philosophers, political scientists and others interested in children’s rights. The question is – is the notion of parental licensing a good idea or is it an extreme authoritarian response to the social problem of child abuse and neglect? The next question is – if parental licensing was in place, who would decide on parental competence, what are the boundaries of competence and how would competence be measured? And what about those adults who are deemed as incompetent? It is worth considering the proposition that, by endorsing the concept of the “best interests of the child” and passing legislation that gives standing to the removal of a child from parental care, by default this constitutes a system of parental licensing.

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父母许可：澳大利亚的观点

父母许可是指在成年人获得完全的父母权利之前应该证明养育能力的想法。这是一个长期存在的想法，在众多学术哲学家、政治科学家和其他对儿童权利感兴趣的人中都存在。问题是——父母许可的概念是一个好主意，还是对虐待和忽视儿童这一社会问题的极端专制回应？下一个问题是——如果有父母许可，谁来决定父母的能力，能力的界限是什么，如何衡量能力？而那些被认为无能的成年人呢？值得考虑的命题是，