ure. The precise content of the consent, being hypothetical, is of course quite vague (which, happily, implies that there is no need to sacrifice the pluralism inherent in wide parential discretion). But at minimum, the hypothetical contract would assure the needs of nourishment, preservation, and education. Though the child's consent need merely be hypothetical, the consent of his guardian(s) much be actual (probably tacit rather than explicit). Since it is the mother of the child who automatically suffers a large cost to bring the child to term, there should be a strong presumption in favor of her exclusive guardianship. Naturally, she may share guardian duties with the father if they both consent through an agreement such as marriage; or she may give up her guardianship of the child through adoption. Some may object that hypothetical consent is infinitely variable. (Robert Pollock told me that he heard a NAMBLA member recall how glad he was that he was molested as a youth.) But I think that every theory of childrens' rights eventually appeals to hypothetical consent: for you could also deny that a child would refuse to be killed, or crippled, or castrated. On most modern Lockean rights theories (though not in Locke himself), such things are only a rights violation if the victim refuses to consent; so such things violate a child's rights only if in some sense his consent is absent. You might argue that all that is necessary to know is that it is extremely unlikely that the adult into whom the child will grow would consent to poisoning, castration, or molestation. That is one possible reply to the NAMBLA objection. Alternately, perhaps this suggests that it is futile to try to develop an exclusively political theory of morality. While the law should not try to instill a particular view of the good life in adults, children may be another matter. Maybe we should treat children as they would consent to be treated if they were not only rat...
