A Spectator's Notebook
THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
may be too , prone to loose off ecclesiastical thunderbolts at card- board targets; as a result his good sense is often dismissed as mere fulmination. Certainly his speech on artificial insemination does not seem to have been as measured as it might have been. Rut he is surely ,right in saying that AID without the consent of the husband should be made a 1.ciund for divorce. What is much more difficult to decide is whether AID should be allowed with the husband's consent, or when there is no hus- band. Most people seem to think that if a woman Wants a child she should not be deprived of the Chance of having one. For myself I find it slightly unsavoury that children should be reduced to the level of television sets and 'washing machines— something that no good home should be without. (The comparison with adoption is inexact. In the ease of adoption the child ex hypothesi already exists, and the only question is whether he will be better off with foster-parents.) On the other hand, children produced by AID may lead better and happier lives than normally conceived chil- dren; as Dr. Fisher said, 'an honest and moving ease can be made out for AID on compassionate grounds.'
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