It saddens me that in Singapore, there is still a difference between how we treat children born "in lawful wedlock" and those born to unwed mothers, in terms of the benefits accorded to them (Unwed mum adopts own biological daughter; May 11).

In medical school, my paediatric professor used to tell us that we should treat every child the same, regardless of his or her parental, social or economic background.

Children do not ask to be born out of wedlock. It is not of their own doing and yet, for centuries, such children have been treated unfairly by society.

It is about time our Government enacted a law to have the words "illegitimate" and "illegitimacy" removed from the statutory books.

Lee Woon Kwang (Dr)