The rejection of marriage impairs the mother's future, the child's well being, and the community's moral and economic fabric. Fiscal reformers and social critics might well find common ground on this issue. But from the point of view of my discipline, social anthropology, this is an error. Through this error both mother and child are made dependent and vulnerable, and too often condemned to reproduce their tragedy down the generations. Illegitimacy produces injustice for those who must live it, and for those expected to subsidize it.
Much confusion exists about the term illegitimacy, which has more than sexual implications.
A regime, for instance, may be illegitimate if its power is wielded without the sanction of law. So likewise is reproduction illegitimate if it falls outside the structure of marriage. It is not the human worth of the child that is being challenged, but rather the failure of the parents to ensure the child's rights to a social estate in life. And when illegitimacy spreads, the orderliness of society is threatened. These are the structural features of the practice.