Skip to content
When do Parental Obligations Not Apply? episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 6, 2026 · 3 MIN

When do Parental Obligations Not Apply?

from The Voluntary Life

An AI narration of the article 'When do Parental Obligations Not Apply?' by Jake Desyllas. The causal theory of parental responsibility grounds positive obligations in the fact that, by creating a child, parents place that child in a state of peril. But if obligations follow from action, what about the cases where a child comes into existence without the parent having acted in the relevant sense? In this short piece, Jake works through the principled exceptions: rape, gamete theft, paternity fraud, gestational surrogacy, and a pregnancy that endangers the mother's life. Each case is a test of the theory's internal logic — and a clarifier of where parental obligations begin and end. The piece also draws an implication for the abortion debate, distinguishing the consensual-sex case from the rape case on grounds that follow directly from the causal theory. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:29 Rape 1:31 Gamete Theft 2:28 Paternity Fraud 3:01 Gestational Surrogacy 3:20 Endangered Life Of The Mother During Pregnancy First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2024/7/13/when-do-parental-obligations-apply on 13 July 2024.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 6, 2026

Embed this episode

Ready to play

When do Parental Obligations Not Apply?

0:00 3:53

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of The Voluntary Life?

This episode is 3 minutes long.

When was this The Voluntary Life episode published?

This episode was published on September 6, 2026.

Can I download this The Voluntary Life episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!