Morals and Helen Archer

I have recently reached 60 so I thought it would be good time to put down what I thought of the last 60 years, the one re-occurring thing was the drop in moral and ethical standards. This I believe was highlighted in an edition of the Archers on Wednesday night where Debbie Archer announces that she is going to have a baby by IVF treatment, now Helen is 30 not married and not in a relationship. She tells her parents that she WANTS a baby and gives no more reason that she WANTS.


The ideal way to bring up a child is with a Mother and Father preferably married (there is sufficient evidence to back this up) but at the very least a Male and Female couple in a stable relationship (Not a Male and Male or Female and Female), so logic dictates that if we want children they should be brought up in the best way possible which is a Mum and Dad. That is in ideal world but sometimes bad things happen a Mum or Dad dies leaving a single parent or the Mum and Dad divorce or split up again leaving a single parent but this group tried to do the norm but have been left in a difficult situation. Next are those who get pregnant by mistake (I find it hard to believe in this day that this still happens) and the father of the child is not around. Then we have the final group who intentionally get pregnant either by a surrogate father or by IVF and have no intentions of having a father involved. This group treat the idea of having children as having a commodity, do they ever stop thinking rather then what they want and think what is best for the child. First the Child will be without a Father, to lose a father must be traumatic but to never have one and to be told in later life that this was intentional must be soul destroying. Having a man involve in child life is very important, plus an extended family i.e. the father relatives helps develop the character of the child. What of work these people make the choice to have a child without a father so why should the tax payer pay for them, so the mother takes on a full time job and employs a nanny, yet a child needs its mother and not just at weekends? So Debbie do not expect a well balanced child or adult when they get older, before any of you write in saying my daughter, son, friend etc has done a really good job accept the fact they are the exceptions not the rule.

When I was 20 I knew of no one who was living together (shacked up or living in sin) I think I only knew a couple of people who were divorced, I knew of no unmarried mothers and only knew of one girl who was pregnant at 16 she married straight away and is still married to the same person now. So was I living in shackled society frightened of my own sexuality or was I living in an era that had a Moral and Ethical Code?



Martin Clarke