In her letter Abandoned Infant and Adoption (TMID, 12 April), Miriam Cassar is quick to make judgements about the baby that was found in the shoe box.

I do not want to be judgmental, but it does not seem to me that a baby who has been abandoned by a desperate and frightened mother can be described as having been “abused” – rather that both this little boy and his mother need urgent care, love and attention and that they should be helped to stay together and to have time to think.

While it goes without saying that the rights of a child (enshrined in the 1989 UN Convention) are paramount and that there is a need to revise legislation on adoption in our islands, to take this baby away from his mother and give him for adoption seems immensely cruel and vindictive. Without knowing all the details of this case, I wonder whether anyone has asked this traumatised mother what she wishes in the vulnerable state she is in so soon after giving birth. Should we not also be questioning the harsh social norms which bring a mother to act in this desperate way? It was alarming to read that the mother was going to “be allowed” to see her baby – what kind of society would even contemplate keeping her away from him?

It could be argued that adoption is no more than the privatisation of child care – a last resort when a child’s health and welfare are threatened. It passes the cost of care from the state to the adopting family. While many adoptions are successful, this is not always the happy fairy-tale solution that society imagines and most thinking people would wish to see every effort made to enable young single mothers to keep their babies, with the help and support of their families, as well as social services when necessary.

Readers who are interested in the wider subject of adoption might care to read Adoption and Loss: The Hidden Grief by Evelyn Burns Robinson.

H. Caruana Galizia

London