by Jack C. Westman

About the author: Jack C. Westman is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and editor of Child Psychiatry and Human Development.

In spite of the frequently heard phrase “children are our most precious national resource,” our actions and inactions speak otherwise. At the root of this misfortune are the lack of recognition of the civil right of children to competent parenting and the lack of enforcement of the legal right of children to be protected from incompetent parenting.

Anyone who conceives and gives birth to a child is entitled to raise that child and may be entitled to receive governmental financial and possibly educational support. No one asks if that person is capable of parenting that child.

This situation results from popular views of parenthood that emphasize...