A Critique of Roderick Long's Theory Of Parental Obligations

An AI narration of the article 'A Critique of Roderick Long's Theory Of Parental Obligations' by Jake Desyllas.

Roderick Long sets out a clear version of the causal-peril principle: if your voluntary actions place another person in danger, you acquire an enforceable obligation to get them out of peril. But when Long applies this principle to parenthood, his arguments are inconsistent. Fathers, on Long's account, are bound by their causal actions. Mothers escape causal responsibility entirely, acquiring obligations only by the choice not to abort. This episode walks through the contradictions: the gender double standard Long openly acknowledges and refuses to resolve, the strange "reversal of responsibility" that treats unborn children as agents using their mothers' bodies, the matriarchal property-right framing in which fathers are obligated only if mothers permit it, and his ad-hominem dismissal of the causal obligations argument.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction
3:33 Men Have Responsibility For Their Actions, But Women Don't
5:04 Pregnancy Creates Special Exemptions For Women Being Responsible For Their Actions
7:38 Reversal of Responsibility
8:57 A Matriarchal Theory Of Parental Ownership
10:19 Dismissing Parental Obligations As Mere Sexism
11:34 Conclusion

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/9/23/a-critique-of-roderick-longs-theory-of-parental-obligations on 23 September 2025.