A law needs to be passed in Jamaica that the names of the fathers of all children should be placed on birth certificates at birth. Doesn't it take both mother and father to produce a child? Why then is it only the mother's name that is on 80 per cent of the birth certificates of children born in this country? Isn't this practice assisting, reinforcing, enabling the culture of irresponsible and reckless production of children in this nation? Haven't we realised that as a people, we must find ways to hold our parents accountable for irresponsible parenting? I contend that this is one of the first ways to do so.

Now, many in this country might not agree with me. First, there are the men who find the present legal situation convenient and suitable to their irresponsible sexual lifestyle. These are the men who are married and have their legally acknowledged families. They then have other children outside of the marriage with women who are their mistresses or with whom they are having a 'fling'. They produce these children, many times unintentionally, and then make it clear that the children are not to have their names because they do not want to be identified as the fathers. They do not want the public to know that they have been unfaithful to their wives or worse yet, that they were not careful while they were having their sexual pleasures. Some of these men support the women and children financially while some cut them off completely and want nothing to do with them.

lack of responsibility

Second in this group are the men who are not married and they have no intention of having any woman tie them down in a committed relationship. They want to have their freedom and they want to have free sex, so they roam from available woman to available woman and they move on. They do not care whether a child is produced after they have had their fill of pleasure. They want no responsibility. They do not want any mothers or children laying claim to their person or money.

Third in this group are the women who, having reached a certain age where they fear that they are no longer marketable in the marriage market, decide that they are going to find a man, have sex with him so that they can have a child. It does not matter that the man has no commitment to them; what is important is to produce a child. So the man is carefully chosen, for his looks, for his intellect or his pedigree. The man sometimes might be cooperative in this venture, or if not, then he is seduced. One way or another, these women get their desired sperm.

The fourth group are the women who sleep with different men at the same time. They use their bodies as a means of financial support. So, they get money from each of the men with whom they sleep. When a baby is born, she says to each of the men that she needs each of them to support the child. The men do not know this strategy. Each man thinks he is the father. It is quite suitable for her not to have the father named on the birth certificate.

common theme

There is a common theme that runs through the reason for all these persons not wanting the fathers named on a child's birth certificate. It is selfishness. No one in these groups thinks about the impact that such an act will have on the child. A child is named, a mother is named, why isn't the other part of the triangle named - the father?

I have seen the impact of such selfishness and irresponsibility on some of our children. I have heard stories of how psychologically devastating this practice is on the consciousness of many children. They are the ones whose fathers already have their families. Even if they know their father and he supports them, they are not publicly acknowledged. They have their mother's surname or some other name which does not reflect their paternity. They want more than anything to be seen with their fathers publicly, to be proudly acknowledged by the father as he does his other children. These children suffer from a sense of rejection. They become angry and bitter. They sometimes spite their parents by not performing well at school. They might act up at school so that the parents will have to be called in. All of this behaviour is in an attempt to get attention, even if negative, because the public attention which they should get from the father is not possible. Who is suffering in this situation? The children.

Then there are those who ask their mothers, "Mommy, who is my daddy?" and the mother refuses to tell them. They never see their fathers; they have no relationship with them. These children flounder trying to establish their identity, wanting to understand themselves. They feel like a part of them is missing; they want to understand their DNA, but are unable to. They feel lost. Many become angry and bitter and we hear of some of them ending up in 'The Fatherless Crew'. Even last week, we heard of 15-year-old young men burning and killing in our country. Probably, they are the by-products of this selfish way of producing children.

children suffering

The suffering from this practice of selfishness, of not naming fathers and of not legally acknowledging the paternity of our children, is producing havoc and untold suffering on our country. It is doing damage to us in the production of angry, bitter people who act out this anger in criminality. It is doing damage to the souls and consciousness of children, even when they become adults. These persons live with a sense of rejection and a need for acceptance from the one person who influenced their genes apart from their mother, yet who refuses to give them what is rightfully theirs: their identity. They long to be acknowledged by their fathers.

I pray that change will take place in this nation, that even as the prophet Malachi says, that the "hearts of the fathers will be turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers".

Esther Tyson is principal of Ardenne High School, St Andrew. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.