Parental Partiality in Unjust Circumstances: Inheritance as Insurance

There is broad egalitarian agreement that inheritance results in distributive injustice and indirectly delegitimizes the political process; we should abolish it. But until we do this and put in place public safety nets, parents do no wrong in insuring their children against destitution. Both procreative liability and parental love generate duties that justify some bequests, limited in size and form. In the aggregate, however, the bequests are likely to be substantial, impeding egalitarian reforms. The stringency and demandingness of procreative and parental duties provide (would-be) parents with special and powerful reason to support justice and, in particular, public safety nets.