Mark Anthony Falzon is of the opinion that ‘people’ have babies and that’s that (‘life’ is a gift). He describes two who became “child mums”; one was from an affluent home and the other teen from a working class background. Both girls, with the assistance of their families, showcased a “success story”. It seems he has not yet met disaster ‘people’ who ran away because they were abandoned by their families.

If it weren’t for social programmes, these child-mums would be at the mercy of baby-hunters. In the past, teenage pregnancies were a dishonour to the family; the affluent always packed them off, out of sight, and the poor dropped off their babies at the orphanage doorstep.

The Canadian National Post has a serial going on ‘past adoptions’, mentioning the Salvation Army and other charity organisations fostering adoptions (horror stories!). Ireland used to have nuns running adoption centres from their convents delivering babies (born to unwed girls) to the US.

Today, English society is complaining that too many ‘people’ are receiving benefit cheques for their numerous out-of-wedlock offspring, having started at a tender age; some women just love to be called “Mother”. Is this fair or unfair to the children; as well as to society that foots the bill?