Intergenerational Responsibility and Family Obligation: On Sharing

The question of what family members owe to each other has become acute for a number of reasons: some demographic; some economic; and some social. The issue, of course, is an old one. During the sixteenth century, support for those who were disabled through youth (typically orphans and abandoned children), age, or infirmity was first a matter for private charity and, when that failed, became a matter of local responsibility. However, the cost of local responsibility was soon recognized, and recognition was swiftly followed by efforts to minimize the public obligation by, for example, punishing those who were "voluntarily" disabled-vagrants and beggars--and shifting to families the primary obligation for support of their disabled relatives.'