From the editor’s desk

Children need Fathers

From time to time an idea comes along that captures the mood of the moment. Eight years ago a new organisation, Fathers Direct, did just that. Its main aim was to provide information on fatherhood through training and advice, but its very existence reflected the growing belief that fathers should play as vital a role in the raising of children as mothers do. Indeed, much of Fathers Direct's focus has been on helping those who provide services for families to meet the Government's demand that they include fathers in their work.

This is not just due to an innate sense that children require the love and care of fathers. It is based on solid research: that the more a father is involved emotionally with his children, the greater they benefit in terms of their development, their school performance, their self-esteem and their well-being. The evidence for this is apparent in playgrounds throughout the country. Teachers often find that children, particularly boys, whose fathers play no active part in their upbringing can fall behind academically and be highly disruptive.

Yet a government that has acknowledged the vital responsibilities of fathers is now seeking to introduce legislation that undermines the place of men in children's lives. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which was debated in the House of Lords this week would remove the requirement for doctors to take into account the need of the child for a father when they agree to provide fertility treatment. The bill would also allow lesbian couples to be regarded as joint legal parents of children who have been conceived with donated sperm or eggs.

Gay-rights campaigners have said that changing the law will remove discrimination against same-sex couples. But as Baroness Williams of Crosby pointed out during the Lords debate, a reform of this kind has far greater consequences. In this case, as she argued, it could well change the general attitude towards fatherhood.

Modern family life is often not straightforward. Many children grow up with step-parents, stepsisters and stepbrothers. An increasing number of children are raised by single parents. Some children thrive in these richly varied structures of family life, but others can become confused about their identity. People adopted as children often feel the need to search for their natural fathers and mothers in later life, which again emphasises the importance of the role of both parents in shaping a sense of identity.

There are plenty of single or widowed mothers who make up for their child not having a father through sheer force of love. But this situation is far from ideal, as they generally recognise, and it is very different from limiting a child's parenting from the outset, by choice. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-

O'Connor argued in a letter to The Times this week that the bill is profoundly wrong, for it undermines the place a father has in a child's life. To object to the bill on these grounds is not to argue that a lesbian is incapable of maternal feeling or of raising a child responsibly. But as the Archbishop of York made clear in the debate, the bill goes much further than that. It is evidence, said Dr John Sentamu, of the rampant individualism and consumerism in society, focusing on the desires of a parent rather than the needs of a child.