New Zealand children are born with grossly unequal opportunities for health. Professor Gluckman (Prof. Of paediatrics at the Auckland University School of Medicine) said,

"The state of our children's health is not what it should be. Relative to other comparable countries our children are sicker and get poorly treated. About 200 children die in their first year of life in New Zealand who would not if they live in Australia or elsewhere in the Western world... We admit children with diseases that should not exist - rheumatic fever is rite; TB still occurs."

Were New Zealand's children equal to the rest of the world we would not see such a high understaffing of paediatric services. For example,

"Most feared were cords - electric blanket and vacuum cleaner

"This just reflects the national priorities."

An alternative look at child health is the children who owe their misfortune to the habits of their parents. Maternal drinking of alcohol, smoking and glue-sniffing in the antenatal period and parental smoking post-natally can all have a disastrous effect on the long-term health of their children.

One hundred years later in October 1988, there are reports of a four year old boy being beaten with a steel rod from a clothes dryer, on more than one occasion, for bedwetting.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Denmark England, Maurice Dean, School Medicine, Zealand They'll, Health Board, Auckland Star, Simon Jefferson, Evening Post, Zealand Zealand's, Listener Questioning, zealand society, child health, abuse children, children zealand, children's health, health children, child abuse,
Approximate Word count = 1261
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)