What's Wrong with Children's Rights

What's Wrong with Children's Rights by Guggenheim, Martin. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780674017214.

"Childrens rights": the phrase has been a legal battle cry for twenty-five years. But as this provocative book by a nationally renowned expert on childrens legal standing argues, it is neither possible nor desirable to isolate children from the interests of their parents, or those of society as a whole. From foster care to adoption to visitation rights and beyond, Martin Guggenheim offers a trenchant analysis of the most significant debates in the childrens rights movement, particularly those that treat childrens interests as antagonistic to those of their parents. Guggenheim argues that "childrens rights" can serve as a screen for the interests of adults, who may have more to gain than the children for whom they claim to speak. More important, this book suggests that childrens interests are not the only ones or the primary ones to which adults should attend, and that a "best interests of the child" standard often fails as a meaningful test for determining how best to decide disputes about children.