where a confused baby bird tries to find its mother? Now, the UK will have even more confused kids asking, "Are you my father?" Reader Chris emailed this Daily Mail story entitled, "Another blow to fatherhood: IVF mothers can name ANYONE as 'father' on birth certificate." Get a load of this:Family values were under attack again last night with the news that single women having IVF will be able to name anyone they like as their baby's father on the birth certificate.
New regulations mean that a mother could nominate another woman to be her child's 'father'.
The 'father' does not need to be genetically related to the baby, nor be in any sort of romantic relationship with the mother.
Isn't this more than a little confusing? What is the child going to think when he or she grows up and finds out that mom just stuck any old name on his or her birth certificate? I was recently reading an article in the Houston Press on the feelings of children of anonymous sperm donors and found that they already have a host of psychological issues: feelings of loss, not knowing where they came from, feeling robbed of half of their medical history, family and identity. The feelings were summed up by a sperm donor child called Kathleen: "I look in the mirror," she says, "and I don't know whose face is reflected back."
How can these new UK regulations do anything to help kids? At least in the book above, the baby bird happily found its real mother. It sounds like the real life babies in the UK will now have an even harder time finding dad.