Organ donation has dried up after the hullabaloo around Alder Hey, and children who desperately need organ transplants are now in danger of not getting them Death by popular sentiment. Death by populist government spin.And what about the story that dominated the tabloid headlines before Alder Hey took over? The dastardly Kilshaws with their own extraordinary attitudes towards children are proof in themselves of some very weird attitudes. But the aspect of the story that is really damaging to children was the routine pillorying of the natural mother of the twins that the Kilshaws adopted (or, maybe, abducted). Tranda Wecker was considered a “heartless mother” and the sentimental reaction was repulsion at her actions.But doesn’t this kind of knee-jerk condemnation make it all the more difficult for a pregnant woman with real worries about whether she can cope with a baby to make the choice that might be best – adoption? Because, again, of our sentimental projections of what motherhood and childhood ought to be, a few more children may languish in the care of parents who cannot cope, before the council moves in and adoption procedures start. Again, hearts rule heads, and people are sent the signal that they will be admired for being sentimental, and reviled for being practical.When it comes to the unspeakable, deliberate, violent crimes against children, the spiral of counter-productivity can be even more horrific. At the weekend, Gloria Taylor made an appeal for the parents shielding the killers of her son, Damilola, to hand them over to the police.

God knows it is easy to understand why this 10-year-old’s parents want to see his murderers brought to justice. God knows as well what a dangerous and terrible course the people/parents protecting these violent and disturbed teenagers have chosen to take.It is possible that these parents are way beyond morality themselves. But it is also possible that these parents might be better disposed to handing their children over to a judicial system that would help to rehabilitate their seemingly monstrous progeny (probably among those millions of children who have lived their short lives in poverty), and release them quietly after a fair debt had been paid.And indeed, as the Bulger case has proven, that is exactly what the criminal justice system would do. Except that the climate is not one that is supportive of such a course All mercy shown to these killers will be sneered at. The public will be stirred up by the popular press to demand nothing less than lynching for these children, who will forever become objects of hate and personifications of evil.

No parent wants that for their child, no matter how terrible the crime.Again, practical means of dealing with that rare creature, a child killer, are eschewed in favour of sentiment turned nasty, and the demand that for these children there can be no compassion. And so justice itself is made a mockery of, in our rush to protect the innocent and condemn the guilty.These bloodthirsty cries for vengeance protect adult killers as well as children. Again this weekend, there was a suggestion conveyed to the parents of Sarah Payne, that a man may be arrested for the murder of their daughter The weekend ended with no charge made. While it is possible, it is by no means likely that this killer has evaded arrest so far without the collusion of others.Could it be that the 10-day festival of sentiment, during which pop stars talked on the television to Sarah, and thousands of people reassured her parents that they too felt that Sarah was alive, has played its part in protecting this murderer, by whipping up public sentiment to a hysterical degree? Could it be that the News of the World’s naming and shaming, and the scenes of civil unrest that followed the chance discovery of her body, have actually served to protect this person also? None of these steps was practical None of them helped. They were all illogical, ranging from sentimental to frenzied. Such behaviour from adults never, ever helps children.Occasionally, indeed, this frenzied rush to judgement might offer killers the ultimate protection – another person being convicted for their crime. From the time Michael Stone was charged with the killing of Megan and Lin Russell, people who are expert in dealing with miscarriages of justice have argued for his innocence.Now he has been granted leave to appeal, on grounds of DNA evidence as well as non-disclosure of evidence.