Ethical Consideration On "Child Abuse"

Children are not only every family’s happiness, but also the futurepillars of the country. A happy childhood is essential to the growth of achild. However, in recent years, violations of the rights of the child occurfrequently, especially child abuse events having caused the whole societygreat indignation and strong concern. Why have these terrible thingshappened? What are the causes for these events? How can we prevent andput an end to this inhumane phenomenon? The author concerns andstudies this issue from the perspective of ethics.The first chapter introduces research background, literature reviewsat home and abroad, research purpose and significance as well as researchmethods. With the frequent occurrence of the phenomenon of child abuse,this research explains the importance and urgency of ethical reflectionson this issue, and reviews on the status quo of domestic and foreignresearches on child abuse. Through data analysis and presentation onchild abuse events, this chapter summarizes the types of child abuse.From the perspective of reality, the second chapter analyzes the causes ofthe phenomenon of child abuse, which can be summarized as follows:causes of the family, causes of kindergarten and school, and social causes.The third chapter introduces the development history of domestic andwestern ethical thoughts on the rights of the child. In general, in the westerners’ opinion, the children belong to the God with the relativepersonality and rights; in China, children belong to the parents, as private.According to the characteristics and contents of domestic and westernethical thoughts on the rights of the child, the development history fromancient to present can be divided into three stages. And it also givesnecessary proofs and explanations to the specific thoughts on the rights ofthe child.The fourth chapter introduces the advocacy of legitimacy of therights of the child. It introduces the basic contents of the rights of thechild, i.e. the rights of the child are freedoms and benefits that should beenjoyed by children based on their moral status. From the perspective ofreality, the rights of the child concern the children’s growth and therealization of social equality. Therefore, it is of great significance incaring for the rights of the child from the perspective of ethics.The fifth chapter gives the ethical approaches to prevent child abuses.It analyzes and discusses how to put an end to child abuse, and torecognize, respect and seriously treat the issue of the rights of the child,from the perspectives of ethics, protection ways of the rights of the child,and prevention laws and regulations of child abuse.