Letter: The male Pill

Sir: Ed Walker has missed the point in criticising the male contraceptive pill on the grounds that women don't trust men to take it ("It's all right, love, I'm on the Pill", 3 November).

The majority of babies in this country are conceived without their fathers' conscious consent. Dr Charlie Lewis, studying 100 cohabiting expectant couples, found that more than half the infants had been conceived without joint discussion, and contraception had often been abandoned by the woman without her partner's knowledge. Since rates of "unintended" pregnancy will be even higher among couples not living together, it seems likely that neither sex can trust the other to be honest about contraceptive practice.

This, however, is not an argument against pill, patch or implant - whether for men or women. Where invisible hormonal contraception is only made available to women, as is currently the case, women become the potential custodians not only of their own fertility (which is right and proper) but of men's (which is not). Men need the male contraceptive pill for their own sakes - and for that of children, who benefit when both parents plan their arrival. Indeed, with child support legislation beginning to bite, can any man afford not to take it?

ADRIENNE BURGESS

Research Associate

Institute for Public Policy Research

London SW1