=Shall We Return to Polygamy?=--Again, in such cases as have been
indicated, should the first mother be ignored and the child or
children of the irregular union be adopted into the legal home of the
father and added to the registered children of the second mother? Some
such plan has been adopted in some countries and at certain periods of
family development. Such a course undertaken now, however, in modern
conditions would, in addition to the possible suffering of the adopted
children, be most unjust to the unmarried mother. Or, again, would it
be advised that the first mother with her child or children be
accepted as a legal part of the home in which the second mother is
legally installed? That would be a frank return to polygamy in cases
where there have been irregular pre-marital relations outside of the
monogamic bond. Or do all those who advocate the abolition of
illegitimacy take the ground, which some of them definitely do, that
the monogamic family is obsolete and that the state in its corporate
capacity should take full charge of all children? Or, when the demand
is sifted to its ultimate elements, is it merely that the unjust
conditions attending the lives of children born out of wedlock must be
ameliorated by a larger charity of feeling, a better understanding of
human weakness and the effect of bad social conditions, and the
constant effort to give all children as nearly equal chance at the
best things of life as can be made possible by social feeling and wise
social care?
=All Children Entitled to Best Development Possible.=--If the latter
is all that is meant, the phrase the "abolition of illegitimacy" is
unfortunate and the real agreement among philanthropists, educators
and all right-thinking people on the just claim of all children
(however they may chance to arrive on this troubled planet) to the
best development possible, should be emphasized in the slogan. It is
well to remember that only a minority of children in any country, and
in many countries a very small minority, are involved directly in this
problem of the right treatment of children born outside the legal
family. It would seem the part of social wisdom, therefore, in this,
as in all other matters of social control, to ask ourselves the
question, What rule on the whole gives the best condition for the
largest number of persons?--and on the answer to that question base
our law and custom, then add considerate treatment for the minority
who must in the nature of things have some handicap if the rule is
obeyed by the majority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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