Most of us believe that creating a baby gives us a moral right to parent that baby, and some argue that this right partially justifies society’s privileging of the biological nuclear family. Jake Earl, MA, argues that a lottery system for assigning parents to newborns would be morally superior to our current practice in several ways, spelling trouble for several philosophical views about the purported right to raise our own children. Though there are other reasons to reject the idea of a baby lottery, Earl will suggest, it isn’t because such a lottery would violate a moral entitlement to parent one’s progeny.

Selected talks from our Friday Cookies & Bioethics series are available in podcast form online and via iTunes.