Autonomy to Choose What Constitutes Family: Oxymoron or Basic Right?

Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandal and other critics have argued that liberalism is living off the borrowed capital of Western civilization. That is, to the extent that liberalism requires neutrality among theories of the good, the generation of values – of strong families, hard workers, honest people, engaged citizens, and devout church members – takes place offstage. These critics worry that the institutions that develop values, such as churches and families, have atrophied in the modern secular state, and that liberalism can no longer assume that private institutions will serve the purposes that, before the rise of liberalism, had been advanced by the state.