To: Electronic Telegraph <et.letters@telegraph.co.uk>

Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001

 
Dear Sir/Madam,

It is outrageous that anyone should have the power to force a woman to have a child she does not want, and high time that a woman's absolute right to decide were guaranteed by law (Boyfriend delays clinic abortion, 21 March 2001).

On the other hand, women - and society at large - should recognise and accept the importance of a child's biological father, no matter who he is - above all for the child's sake. He is not only the father, he also provides a set of grandparents, as well as aunts, uncles, cousins, and a whole line of ancestors.

A child is the unique product of the union of two individuals who in turn are each the product of a long line of decent. In the past the significance of this was perhaps overemphasised, to the unjustified detriment of those born out of wedlock, but to act as if it were of little or no significance at all, I believe, is a grave modern mistake. 

It does matter who your mother AND father are and how they came to conceive you (whether in love and shared responsibility, rather than in wedlock or not). The current, officially promoted attitude of many single mothers that their child's father is relatively unimportant is very misconceived and damaging for the child and society. Mother, father and child remain bound together for a life time - perhaps longer if the child has children of its own - irrespective of the actual or legal situation.

If teenaged girls realised this perhaps they would be less inclined to become single mums, and be more careful, or, if it is too late, have their pregnancies terminated instead.

I suggest that it is time to break with religious morals which may have made sense in the past, but which have ceased to be appropriate. Women are no longer considered the property of men, and our overpopulated planet has no need for unwanted children.

Once a child is born, of course, and is accepted by its mother, everything changes, no matter how it came to be conceived: then it enjoys all the rights and the protection society provides to all its citizens.

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