I think it would be a sad day when a woman was 'forced', due to the banning of abm (because honestly, in your perfect world there would be no abm would there?), to use another woman's milk if she didn't want to. I think a lot of the bigger issues are being missed here that extend further than simply a choice between ebm and abm - would you force a mother who was a devout Jehovah's Witness to use someone elses' body fluid? Or would you force anyone to use it who had concerns, religous or otherwise to use it? That's something to consider when tossing about Utopian fantasies of a world with no formula kwim?

I think milk banks have their place, although I do have to question the sterility of it Barb (a few pages back) as once it leaves the breast it is no longer sterile, so it isn't a given that what you are getting is of a good enough quality to guarantee the babe does not get sick from it kwim? Once something has to go through a process, there is a risk of failure of those processes and I would hate to think that there could be a nation-wide recall of breast milk that was sullied during production. This is all theorising of course, but I like to think outside the square when it comes to stuff like this and think of all possibilities. If it were ever to reach commercial proportions then I don't know how it could be 1 sustained in the long term - you are talking loads of women here expressing more than they would ever need to cope with the apparent growing demand for it, and 2 how will these women be compensated for it? Will they receive a financial incentive to donate milk and be a regular provider of milk for milk banks and will they eventually be exploited for it like the dairy industry has been of recent times? Its not that much of a leap to link the two as they are providing the same product.

I found it interesting to read in the Daily tele on Tuesday about 'black market milk' where women who are choosing not to try to bf are searching high and low to find women that can provide the bm for them. Now is this *right*? There is just something intrinsically wrong with a woman who can't be bothered trying to bf her own baby herself from birth, but yet has the common sense to know that breast milk is the best nourishment for her child, so she would happily part with her money to ensure that the child gets it. And is it right for a woman to have to go to the effort to keep a plentiful supply and take time to express and store milk for someone who simply couldn't be bothered? It just wouldnt sit right with me.