[OldFriend]

I believe life is precious, no matter how it was conceived.

[Albion Wilde]

I believe life is precious, no matter how it was conceived.

On this we all agree. Taking away the label of illegitimacy from children was a good thing. But we need to re-apply that label to parents who willfully fail to provide the other parent for their child.

[maica]

I believe life is precious, no matter how it was conceived.

&&&&&

No one has said that this writer's life is not precious. She is just asking folks to focus on a problem that results from adults choosing to deprive a child of one of his or her parents = on purpose, not as a result of death, divorce or other separation after the fact of conception.

I advocate for women not to go out and "make": a baby, whether with an accomodating or duped friend, or with a turkey baster - knowing that she is planning to beget a child with only half the heritage, love and affection that every child deserves.

[bvw]

The life is precious, once arrived. But just like those Mt Hood climbers handicapped and/or overexposed themselves with regard to danger, the life of a bastard comes with a leg-iron of precariousness and risk that those born in wedlock are free of. Moreover it is no favor to those so burdened to ignore the burden -- how callous folks are in that "kindness" to ignore and hide that burden, for it remains a burden no matter how pretty and indirect the label giiven it.

Born cursed -- that is to say, at a constant handicap to the rest of us, it takes considerable effort on all to undo or alleviate that curse. And the biggest effort falls to the one so cursed to be born out of wedlock, and we help that poor soul not at all to deny there is such a curse, such a burden. To deny that burden, that curse, a name is to deny the most effective means of remedy. A name is a handle by which it can be handled by the one person who must handle it: the bastard, him or herself.