With reference to the Malta Gay Rights Movement's objections to the President of Malta's speech regarding marriage, it is correct to remember that in a child's life both the paternal figure and the maternal figure have great importance which nothing and no one can ever replace.

Sometimes, sadly, for one reason or another, for example the death of one of the parents, this figure comes amiss and can never be wholly substituted, even by the most loving of relatives. There will always be someone terribly important missing from that child's life.

To sanction this by law, as in the case of adoption in same-sex marriages, is wrong. In a Western society which is always harping on the rights of the individual to be protected, it is paradoxical to endorse such adoptions with the knowledge that in all instances they necessarily imply beforehand the absence of either one of the parental figures so essential for the healthy psychological and emotional development of every child in such an adoption.