The Confucian Filial Obligation and Care for Aged Parents :: Asian Philosphy Chinese Research

The Confucian Filial Obligation and Care for Aged ParentsABSTRACT Some moral philosophers in the West (e.g., Norman Daniels and Jane English) hold that crowing children have no more moral bargain to support their elderly parents than does any other person in the society, no question how much sacrifice their parents made for them or what misery their parents are presently suffering. This is because children do not ask to be brought into the world or to be adopted. Therefore, there is a basic asymmetry between parental and the filial obligations. I argue against the Daniels/English thesis by employing the traditional Confucian view of the nature of filial obligation. On the basis of a distinction between moral duty and moral responsibility and the Confucian concept of justice, I argue that the filial obligation of openhanded children to care respectfully for their aged parents is not necessarily self-imposed. I conclude that due to the naturalistic character of the family, the natu re of our familial obligations (such as parental feel for for young children and adult childrens respectful caring for aged parents) cannot be consensual, contractarian and voluntarist, but instead existential, communal and historical. Some moral philosophers in the West hold that adult children do not have any more moral obligation to support their elderly parents than does any other person in the society, no matter how much sacrifice their parents made for them in the past or what kinds of misery their parents are presently suffering. This is so, they claim, because children do not ask to be brought into this world or to be adopted. Thus, the traditional filial obligation of supporting and taking care of the aged is left as either the private responsibility of the elderly themselves or as a societal burden on the public. (1) For example, Norman Daniels argues that there is a basic asymmetry between parental and the filial obligations (Daniels, 1988, p.29). The parental obligation of caring for their young children, says Daniels, is a self-imposed duty, while the so-called childrens obligation of caring for their aged parents is non-self-imposed and thus cannot be morally required. (2) In her famous essay, What Do Grown Children Owe Their Parents, Jane English also claims that a favor done without it being requested or a voluntary sacrifice of one for some other can only create a friendly gesture (Sommers & Sommers, 1993, pp. 758-765). It incurs neither an owing nor a moral obligation to reciprocate.