The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child now stands as the most ratified UN convention. However, under the surface of international agreement, there is still an unresolved debate as to whether children can really hold rights. Children are routinely treated as a "test-case" in philosophy or as second-class citizens in policy making. By examining contemporary and controversial cases, such as the rights of children born using donated gametes to know the identity of their donor, or whether transgender children can consent to puberty-inhibiting hormone treatment, Mhairi Cowden...

These five philosophical essays are designed to constitute a unified whole, in both their critical and their constructive dimensions. Vincent addresses the crisis of meaning, the repetitiousness of technological processes and mechanisms and the declining sense of the real in political life.