Dear Colleagues,

I am developing a new course on Ethics of Family Relationships.
Questions covered might include the following:

• If parents have a right to make decisions about their children's
lives, until what age is this right valid?

• What do parents owe their adult children financially and emotionally?

• What do adult sons owe their parents who are incapacitated because
of age or illness? Is this different from what adult daughters owe
their parents?  If there is a difference in men's and women's family
responsibilities, how do you justify this difference?

• How are the relationships within foster families and adoptive
families morally different from relationships within birth families
(if at all)?

• When people need financial or other material support due to illness
or lay-offs, how much are their siblings or cousins responsible for
helping them out?

• Do adults have a responsibility to take care of their disabled
family members after their parents have died?  If so, why?  If not,
why not?

• Which family model is a better analogy for citizens living under a
government:  parent-child, or sibling-sibling?

Can anyone recommend scholars, readings, films or websites to use as
resources for developing this course?  I am open to assigning work
from scholars in Social Work, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology,
Disability Studies, Special Education, and other related fields.

Please reply to me off-list at [log in to unmask]

Many thanks in advance,

Sophia

Sophia Isako Wong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
www.sophiawong.info