Resumo

DIVERS, Andrew. Children and developed agency. child.philo [online]. 2013, vol.9, n.18, pp.225-244. ISSN 1984-5987.  https://doi.org/110.12957/childphilo.2017.26702.

That That we treat children differently from adults is clear. The attitude of increased paternalistic standards can be seen in a number of cases - be it the rights which children have in terms of medical treatment, decisions about their lives which are left up to parents or guardians, or the prohibition of certain activities before a certain age. However, we can only treat 'children as children' if we can prove that this stands in great enough distinction from the adult. Either it can be shown that children are significantly unique (and certainly so in relation to adults) such that different treatment on this basis is justified, or, if it cannot be shown that children are different to adults or we cannot say who is and who is not a child, then the second conclusion must be that we cannot justify children as deserving of paternalistic treatment, and must either reject paternalistic intervention altogether, or else look for a new criteria upon which to base the application of these increased paternalistic standards. In the course of this paper, the nature of childhood will be examined, as will its value in matters of ascribing rights and responsibility in matters concerning young people. Instead of age and childhood being used as indicators of capacity and responsibility, it will be argued that a mark of the agency of an individual should be taken and that this should hold, regardless of the age of the individual in question. Furthermore, it will be suggested that this agency is task specific. Such a view leads to offering (tentatively) greater rights to children who are developed agents. However, it is clear that the notion of developed agency does not only have connotations for the rights of children - there must also be corresponding responsibilities that come with being a developed agent.

Palavras-chave : Autonomy; Agency; Rights; Responsibility.

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