I don't wish in any way to stifle debate on this issue; it's very important that everyone has their say. But ultimately, that's all that any of us can express - an opinion. None of us has the right to say definitively what MN should or should not be, but in the same spirit, I'm going to add my ha'penny's worth in here too and present a quick re-run of the thinking behind my original argument.
I started the original thread because I was horrified and felt powerless, and judging by the comments of other users, this feeling seems to have been pretty widespread.
We can go back and forth on this matter all night. We can debate the purpose of the site until we are blue in the face.
What it actually boils down to is one simple fact. It's something I put in my original post, and all I can do is reiterate it here. I am not having to put my beautiful 1 year old DD into a boat in Turkey, without a lifejacket, because I have sold everything I own to pay a trafficker for a seat on said boat. But if I were, I would be on my hands and knees, sobbing and screaming and begging and clawing at the clothes of every single person posting here, in our nice safe houses in our nice, safe country, to take my DD and to look after her and to keep her alive and safe. And, without wishing to be presumptuous, and without knowing you personally, I imagine that each and every one of you would do the same, because we all would. Is that an emotional response? God almighty, yes. And so it should be.
We all have the ability and the right to make our own choices on these issues. But we also all know that there are moral consequences to all the choices that we make. Let's be absolutely clear about this. If you genuinely believe that the most important consideration here is whether or not Mumsnet is a parenting website, and whether it should remain only as such, then you absolutely have that right. The whole point of a poll is that it is a democratic process. But if as a result of your posts, Mumsnet decides that it is unable to go ahead with supporting this issue publicly, then you have to live with the moral consequences of that choice. Make no mistake: there are many of us here who do support this, and it may only take a few voices to scupper the whole thing. You have to sleep tonight knowing that you could have done something which might have saved the life of someone's son or daughter, and you actively and deliberately chose not to do that.
I would like to apologise in advance to all the other Mumsnet users for this post. I don't think of myself as an aggressive person and I genuinely don't want to force anyone to make a choice with which they are not happy. But I do believe that we all need to be clear about the consequences of those choices. And the magnitude of those consequences tonight seem to me to be far reaching. Let's think again about that mum, begging you to take her child. I can't help thinking that this is the equivalent of peeling her fingers off your arm and telling her that you will not save her child's life, because it is very important to you that you are able to discuss lunchboxes freely.