While I am happy that the Peoples National Party, through Ronald Thwaites, is seeking a better understanding of the concept of the 'Jamaican family', its dimensions and meanings, I think that Thwaites' private member's motion in Parliament, which seeks to enact legislation to force the addition of a father's name to a child's birth certificate, is reckless and dangerous.

There is a strong, misguided view that women are more faithful than are men and are less tempted by the sin of adultery, etc.

This view assumes that God made women 'holier' than men and not as equals, including in sin. second, this view does not recognise that more women in the workforce have increased the tendency to 'domesticate' the workplace and to replicate domestic types of relationships there, including intimate relationships. Additionally, a woman might be attracted to a man because of his physical traits and might want a child with those features (long, pretty hair). This, however, does not mean that the given woman thinks that this particular man would be a good provider and/or father, and thus, she instinctively transfers 'ownership' of the pregnancy to a more suitable male.

Thwaites' proposal is reckless and dangerous, because if a named 'father' for any reason should be tested and find out that he has no genetic relationship with this 'last child', then his relationship with all other children in that union is brought into question.

Given that no normal rational man has any desire to take care of another man's child, then any other child the named father has reason to suspect as not being his own is faced with the immediate danger of a withdrawal of support, until paternity is firmly established, if ever.

Jamaica's social reality and its historic legacy demand that issues related to the concept of the family be approached with extreme care.

- Basil Fletcher, Donovanfletcher@hotmail.com, Greater Portmore, Via Go-Jamaica