Plante-ing a seed of hope

And the chances are that baby Lorcan will be loved and cherished and will flourish with his new mother. But adoption now seems such a quaint, old-fashioned answer to infertility.

This week we also heard about an Indian grandmother who gave birth to her own grandchildren - conceived using the daughter's eggs and son-in-law's sperm but carried in granny's womb. Another mother gave birth to babies conceived 12 years ago and then stored in the freezer.

Technology is wonderful. Sometimes it solves the problem, finds a solution and produces a longed-for, perfect baby. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes all it seems to offer is hope rather than promise. The more fantastical the possibilities, the more desperate women will keep on trying and hoping.

Those of us on the outside - especially, no doubt, those of us with happy, healthy children - can't help having doubts about it all. When whole lives seem to be spent just waiting and hoping for pregnancy at the expense of everything else, when every possibility, however slight, however fantastical, is worth a try; when the desire for a baby overwhelms everything else, then maybe, it's easy to think, it would be better to accept the fact of childlessness and learn to live with it.

Easy to say. We have doubts about wasted lives, doubts about the morality of some of the science.

And yet...

In a village deep in the south of France I once saw a piece of wood, carefully fenced off. The wood had once been a statue for the Virgin Mary where hundreds of years ago a woman desperate for a baby had become pregnant after touching the statue and falling asleep.

In the centuries since, many more desperate women had tried doing the same - until the statue was worn away with desperate touches and dreams.

All over the world there are similar statues, wells, magic stones and holy places where throughout time, women have prayed and hoped. There have been lotions, potions, prayers and petitions to which ever deity might help.

Now we are more likely to turn to science than God. But all along the centuries, the longing remains undimmed. There have always been women who have been desperate for babies they cannot have and who have been willing to try anything, however desperate.

And sometimes, in some way, they might just succeed. Just ask Lynda La Plante.

YOUNG children who watch the daytime confessional television shows could be psychologically damaged says a new report. Broadcasters such as Johnny Ball have said that shows such as Trisha on which adults argue and fight could have negative impact on children's development. Maybe. But that is not actually the fault of day time TV - it's the fault of parents who plonk their children down in front of the television and can't be bothered to check what they might be watching.

OK George Best is an idiot. He was a great footballer but he was also a great alcoholic.

And not only is he killing himself, he could be killing a lot of other people too - by making people think twice about organ donation.

George had a liver transplant. Controversial at the time as many people thought there were others more deserving. Well maybe, but George deserved a chance.

And he's in danger of blowing it. While wife Alex is proving a brave little star in the jungle, he's hitting the bottle again and has been done for drink driving again, as if he's hell-bent on damaging the new liver as much as the old one.

And in the meantime, people wonder if it's worth giving permission for their loved one's organs to be used for transplants.

Of course it is.

George Best is an exception. Most people who receive transplants are desperately aware that they have been given the gift of life, a second chance. They look after themselves and their new bit - and often work hard to raise money and awareness of the terrific generosity of the families involved, knowing they've received a gift which is beyond price.

George Best might yet see sense. But in the meantime, please don't let one man's daftness prevent lots of other people getting the ultimate gift -the gift of life.

ONE in ten employees is incompetent, says a new survey. Only one in ten? The researchers must have been extraordinarily lucky - or not rung any call centres.

OH no, don't make me laugh. When I heard it, I honestly thought it was a joke. Tony Blair and George Bush have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in Iraq.

Sorry, but it reminds me of the graffiti which years ago was scrawled on a wall near Covent Garden. "Fighting for peace," it said, "is like f *** ing for virginity." And not funny at all.

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Published: ??/??/2003