You have the right to hold an opinion , of course, but the opinion expressed here does come across a tad heartless. Agreed having children is a choice and a privilege, but it is also a right as well, I say this because of at least two couples I know, one; miscarried on 5 occasions, and another eventually fell pregnant via IVF only to miscarry, and seeing the utter devastation, and seeing the want of these two couples to have their own children, to love and bring up only to be denied by a cruel twist of nature, makes it a right.Gullscorer wrote:I know all about parental leave entitlements, but in the real world many women, including well-paid female doctors who would otherwise be working long hours, still choose to raise their kids themselves in the early years. Of course family finances and earnings are a big factor, but having kids is still a choice people make.
Having kids is a choice and a privilege, not a right, nor do I agree it should be a right if it's paid for out of my taxes: Housing Benefit, Child Benefit, parental leave, and the rest. Contraceptives have been available for decades: if people can't afford to have kids they should not be having them, and benefits should be reserved for those who have temporarily fallen on hard times - just my opinion!
However, it's an established fact that the NHS doctor crisis has arisen concomitantly with the growing male/female doctor imbalance. Redressing this imbalance would help, as would greater contributions by doctors towards the costs of their education and training.
The choice, privilege and right to have children should not be denied anyone, child birth should never become something only for the those lucky enough, to be in a comfortable position financially, no couple wanting children should ever be forced into sitting down with their accountant or financial advisor to see if they can afford it.
Children as I'm sure we're all aware are born for many different reasons, some planned or even unplanned into loving homes, some no doubt are for benefits, some via the crime of rape even, but "no" child ever asks to be born "no" child has the ability to say no I don't want to come into the world.
When child is born, that child should never be denied a safe, warm and loving home, food, clothing or education, just because one couple decide not to have children, it does not and should never mean the couple next who did have children should be denied financial help and support for their children, I'm happy for a proportion of my tax to go towards helping families with child care costs, the only difference is, I'd like to see benefits for child care costs paid in vouchers to exchanged for cloths, food and schooling costs, rather than paid in cash, which can, and in some cases does end being spent in the pub.
) Anyway, thanks for lightening up my day.. 
