Personal Autonomy and The Child's Right to an Open Future

This thesis looks at debates regarding the children’s right to an open future, and attempts to reframe them by applying a novel theory of personal autonomy. By appealing to autonomy, we gain clarity as to why selecting for deafness in an unborn child, or raising them as strictly religious, might be unethical. However, we also gain an understanding of what we need to do in order to ensure parents avoid acting against their child’s best interests, and what we should require of societies in order to accommodate children deserving of an open future who might not currently have one.