The basic idea of this book has been that if we closely examine widespread intuitions about what entities in our world have some moral considerability, and why they do, we will recognize these intuitions are based on a multitude of basic criteria for moral status that, if rigorously applied to human beings, might on the whole result in youthfulness elevating moral status. Youthfulness involves a collection of traits including vivacity, growth, enthusiasm, engagement with the world, sensory acuity, intense feeling, adaptability, flexibility, having an open future, being cared about by others, transparency, innocence, beauty, and potential for future life and experience. Chronological adults can manifest many of these traits, by happenstance or conscious effort, but in general youthfulness characterizes children rather than adults. Recognizing that children are superior beings in the moral order, rather than inferior or equal, arguably should lead to significant changes in public policy, law, social life, and popular attitudes.

Some will find these conclusions neither surprising nor unwelcome. A significant percentage of the population today devote their lives to advancing children's welfare and rights, and, through working with or for children, have come to realize the many strengths and virtues children possess. This is no doubt true of some parents, those for whom child rearing is truly an altruistic, self-subordinating undertaking and who repeatedly experience awe in witnessing their children's growth, surprising abilities, purity, and beauty. Such parents might not recoil at the suggestion that their self-sacrifice for children is morally obligatory rather than supererogatory.