My article proposes that parents have a presumptive right to raise their children by virtue of the principles of autonomy, privacy, and individual responsibility. My purpose is to show that a strong argument in support of parental autonomy can be derived from the value of personal autonomy, even in Western cultures in which children’s interests supposedly take precedence. An obvious difficulty in any attempt to ground parental autonomy is the involvement of a third party: the child. I discuss this question, but reject the idea that it can justify granting the state childrearing rights alongside parents. I suggest that state interference in childrearing is motivated less by the potential risk of danger to children and more by an assumption that parents make poor decisions regarding their children. I argue that even if the state could make better decisions than parents regarding children, this is not what government should be doing.
