Illegal adoptions - A chance to make amends

THERE are few enough events in life as traumatic has feeling obliged to give up a newborn child for adoption.

Decades ago thousands of women felt they had little option but to follow this well-worn path.

They may have been heartbroken but they can take comfort in the fact that they enriched the lives of thousands who wanted a child to call their own.

These women, and their children, were sometimes denied the protection our laws promised and today, many years later, some still feel the wrench in a raw and deeply emotional way. Each of us longs for emotional stability and if the State can help those involved in this process the chance to establish a relationship with a child or a natural parent then it should do so.