Lainie Friedman Ross, New York, Oxford University Press, 1998, 197 pages, £30.

Over recent years in the UK there has been increasing emphasis placed on children taking responsibility for what happens to them. This American publication offers a refreshingly different view of parental and family autonomy and advocates a model of constrained parental autonomy. Ross argues that giving children rights equivalent to those of adults is “to deny them the protection they need” and render them “even more vulnerable than they presently are”. Her thesis is that whilst children should be included in the decision making process, parents should be responsible for …