Rivals in Motherhood The case of a girl of twelve
which, after coming before a judge in Chambers and then before a Divisional Court, was settled on Tuesday in the Court of Appeal, illus- trates an old dilemma, which may have to be viewed in a new light. The dilemma is that of a child who has in effect two mothers—one who physically gave birth to her, and the other who has had virtually the whole of her bringing-up. In such a case, where it is the second alone towards whom the child has filial feelings, ought the first to be allowed to take her back ? Nine- teenth-century opinion would have said Yes, looking to the " rights " of the physical parent. And so said the Divisional Court in this particular case, where the rights may have seemed all the stronger, because for most, though not all, of the twelve years the physical parent had paid money for the child's upkeep. But the other point of view is that of child psychology. We know now much better than the nineteenth century did how delicate and vital are the psychological ties between a child and the person who has mothered it. Where such ties are lacking, a child's nature is starved ; where they are violently ruptured—as who can deny that they may be if it is transferred against its will to a claimant who
is a stranger to it ?—there will be irremediable disaster:
At present the Chancery judges seem divided between the two opinions,
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