My primary area of current research is the just distribution of parental rights. In previous research I have developed the Dual Comparative View of the good enough upbringing. According to this view, the interest of parents and children should be taken into account and so should comparisons with the best alternative parent. In arguing for the Dual Comparative View I reject commonly used standards, such as the child’s best interest’s view and the abuse and neglect view.
I am now working on a book project entitled Beyond the Parents, which presents a wide account of justice in childrearing that emerges from taking seriously two cross-cutting distinctions. First, is the distinction between parental and non-parental childrearers, such as grandparents. Second, is the distinction between current and prospective childrearers, such as those seeking adoption or joining stepfamilies. The distinctions generate four categories of childrearer: current parents, current non-parent childrearers, prospective parents, and prospective non-parent childrearers. Of these four, current scholarship has only attended to parents, though it does so without theorising the distinction between current and prospective parents. I argue that because all these childrearers value the same central childrearing goods we should include all four types in a wider account of justice in childrearing. I also show that there are important differences between them. I do so through the development of new theoretical resources and by attending to salient features of the relationships, such as the levels of intimacy and authority and whether an attachment is established. The different forms of treatment owed to each childrearer are significant both in theory and in practical contexts of adoption, grandparents’ rights, and stepfamilies.