A reconceptualization of filial obligations: case study of Singapore

• Main Author: Ng, Michelle Ee Xiang
• Other Authors: Li Chenyang
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Philosophy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165416
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Within Singapore, the issue of filial obligations is becoming prominent and contested. This is due to the clambering issue of parental abuse and neglect, as well as the increasingly demanding care burden experienced by the younger Singaporeans towards their elderly parents. As such, this evokes questions about the circumstances under which grown children have an obligation to care for their elderly parents and what happens if they are unable to fully provide for the needs of their elderly parents. Yet, various theories of filial obligations are unable to provide an uncontentious account of how these issues should be tackled. This paper seeks to address both questions by proposing a reconceptualization of filial obligations. I will argue that grown children have an obligation to care for their elderly parents if they have provided care towards them as a child. However, the obligation can be shared with the state when they lack the ability to fully provide for the needs of their elderly parents. This creates an imperative for the state to socially cooperate and support grown children in meeting the needs of their elderly parents when they have the desire to provide for them but are unable to adequately do so.