The text of this paper, together with the abstracts of the discussions held by the Institute of Actuaries in London on 26 February 2001 and by the Faculty of Actuaries on 19 March 2001, are printed in British Actuarial Journal, 7, III, 365-466.

The lecture begins by outlining the differences in lifetime earnings between men and women, and between women with different levels of skill and with different numbers of children. It continues with a discussion on wrongful conception and wrongful birth, and the legal implications when damages are sought when children are born who were not meant to have been born. Many examples of claims for damages brought before the courts, over a period of time, are used to illustrate various aspects of this. Cases concerning both healthy and disabled children are discussed, and the changes that occur for all women who have given birth and the mother's responsibility of care are considered.

The Government Actuary's Department (GAD) came into being in 1919, originally arising from the perceived importance of applying actuarial skills to the financing of the United Kingdom social security system. Whilst the GAD has changed considerably over the years, and now operates as a publicly owned consulting firm, social security and related policy and regulatory advice remain at the core of the Government Actuary's role. This paper explores the nature of the role of the GAD in the social security area, and provides examples of the scope of GAD reports on the long-term finances of the National Insurance Fund. A brief description is given of some of the other areas of GAD's work.

During 2000, which was the fourteenth year of publication of the World Index series, it was expanded to cover a further twenty countries, as it absorbed the Barings Emerging Markets series, becoming the All-World series. Preparations continued for the promised mid-2001 adjustments to reflect the available free floats of constituents' shares.