There is also J S Mill's famous argument in On Liberty that parents 
could or should be restricted from bringing children into the world 
unless they could raise them.

That argument he makes with reference to his argument about liberty, 
and self- and other-regarding actions.  I had always gone tied this 
argument to his sense of liberty (and, perhaps, as a necessary step 
in the logic, the centrality of the [egalitarian] family for social 
development).   But perhaps the private good / public good 
distinction would be at work?


Peter G. Stillman