Much-loved millionaire in long-term stable relationship has child: cause for concern says Bishop Nazir-Ali
It’s funny, there’s rather a lot of factors that might determine the future quality of a child’s psychology, prospects, and relationships. Socio-economic class, for example, is a pretty massive one. We might also ask, Is the extended family large or small? How old are the parents and what’s the age gap? Yes, maybe, possibly, the genders (and personalities, and habits and a host of other traits) of the parents might be more or less predictive factors in the general health and well-being of children. This is all possible.
However, few of us would suggest reminding people at every opportunity that as a general trend their parenting might be affected by such a factor, still less would we single people out, or hint toward the suggestion that this factor is such a significant determinant of negative consequences that they shouldn’t have children in the first place.
Unless, that is, the target of our scorn is a same-sex couple, and we’re a bishop.
Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John is only 15 days old, but he has already provoked a pronouncement from one of the Church of England’s most prominent prelates.
Sir Elton John’s fathering of a son by an American surrogate mother with his civil partner, David Furnish, risks causing the child lasting psychological damage, claims the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester.
“I believe that surrogacy, inevitably, introduces a ‘third’ party to the legal parents,” he tells Mandrake. “This will affect the welfare of the child, psychologically and in other ways.”
… “Although society must support single parents who, heroically, bring up children on their own, all the evidence shows that children are best brought up in the context of a stable marriage where they can relate to a mother and a father, so that they can develop healthy relationships with people of both genders.”
Next week, Bishop Nazir-Ali will be telling people who earn less than the average income, and couples with more than ten years age gap between them, that they should consider the possible negative effect on their children’s “welfare” and “psychology”. Oh no, actually, he won’t.
Much-loved millionaire in long-term stable relationship has child: cause for concern says Bishop Nazir-Ali,
All these Christian fundamentalist types keep on saying the baby would be better off with the surrogate, but the surrogate has no biological connection to the baby. She was just the method of birth, the egg came from another woman who is as far removed from the baby as Bishop Nazir-Ali is.
I think it would be far more damaging for Zachary to read what these religionists have said about his birth.
I don’t understand how this is relevant to the cause of humanism. Are you expecting all of us to nod along with the idea that this pair of ageing prima donnas are going to be great parents, just because some cleric doesn’t like it? There are plenty of reasons to find the purchase of this baby objectionable which have nothing to do with religion.
“Are you expecting all of us to nod along with the idea that this pair of ageing prima donnas are going to be great parents, just because some cleric doesn’t like it?”
The point is that whatever you think of the parents, they have the right to do what they’re doing without interference from busybody bishops (or anybody else).