Default pusblishing status of child node type is not respected on child node creation

Child nodes are automatically set to status=published ($node->status = 1), no matter whether the default setting of the node type is "published" oder "unpublished". It would be better if either
a) node_widget would respect the default setting of the node type or
b) it would be possible to set the publishing status of he child node from the parent node's node form.