Friday, November 30, 2012

Critical Review of Judge Posner's Parental Rights Market


Ethics and Economic Analysis of a Child Parental Rights Market     
    
                In general, the roots of any markets could be traced back to the desires for sellers to supply and buyers to demand. This results in some transaction of goods and services in exchange for an agreed compensation. Hence, following the economic definition given for a market, the conditions for a baby market as described by Judge Richard Posner appears to be quite viable.
                However, the Judge’s argument poses some major fallacies that stem from ethical oversight and the misuse of economic models to describe the liberalization of the child market. This paper discusses the proposed child market under a more appropriate monopolistic competition model and its implication on ethical issues surrounding the welfare of the child and society. Particularly, this paper will utilize economic concepts to justify ethical claims that the current adoptive system would be better or equally as good as the proposed child market when children welfare and society costs are taken into account.