Ethical Questions Concerning Corporal Punishment of Children: Touring its Implications and Directions

Abstract

The following paper intends to expound few ethical questions around the
practice of corporal punishment of children. Moving beyond a myriad of mental and physical ramifications, the objective here is to estimate the deep-seated issues that the damaging disciplinary model of corporal punishment yields and, furthermore, to promote a Virtue Ethical approach to parental discipline. For the sake of clarity and precision, the paper will restrict to two ethical questions: the question of personhood and degradation. Plainly put, a beating does not just affect the subject physically but has reverberating ethical consequences. In the end, I shall suggest/ argue that Virtue Ethics presents an approach to remedial parenting that guides the child in an ethical manner.

The paper will address the following fundamental research questions: What ethical concerns does the practice of corporal punishment of children upheave? How do the questions concerning personhood and degradation offer an ethical interpretive paradigm for understanding the real iniquitous transactions of corporal punishment of children? and Which prominent ethical theory can act as a remedial model in this context? This paper intends to make the readers cognizant of the entrenched ethical implications and ensuing directions of this inglorious form of parenting style.