ChuckD
The Gay Lord of Freestyle
Scottish gay couples are to be allowed to adopt children as part of a major overhaul of the adoption system which aims to give children a better chance in life.
The first major change to the adoption law in over 25 years was announced on Friday and will allow “unmarried couples, including same sex couples, who are in an enduring family relationships to adopt jointly.”
Announcing the changes, deputy education minister Euan Robson pointed out that gay couples, can, to all intents and purposes, adopt at present - both partners are assessed together but only one can apply to adopt while the other must apply for a residence order.
However, Robson said that “This confusing legal position needs to be addressed.
“The Executive supports the group's unanimous recommendation, set within the context of decisions being made in the best interests of the child.”
The planned changes have outraged the Scottish Catholic Church. Cardinal Keith O’Brien has said that the plans to allow gay couples to adopt were “clearly not in the best interests of children."
“The proposals to permit homosexual couples to adopt are contrary to the common good. Such a measure would distort the understanding of the family, cause harm to children and promote the status of homosexual relationships,” O''Brien said.
"Homosexual unions are notoriously fragile and unstable and the small number of homosexual couples living together make the suggestion that this measure would increase the number of potential adoptive parents unrealistic.
“Sadly, demands for parental rights for homosexual partners are more to do with fulfilling their wish for status rather than meeting needs of children.”
Earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI referred to unions between people of the same sex as "pseudo-marriage" calling them "expressions of an anarchical freedom, which passes itself off, wrongly, for a true liberation of man."
O’Brien said that his “words deserve our attention."
The Executive will also modernise and improve the law on adoption to provide better support, speed up the handling of adoption cases, and introduce a new Permanence Order, giving long-term stability to children who cannot live with their birth families but for whom adoption is not the best option.
The first major change to the adoption law in over 25 years was announced on Friday and will allow “unmarried couples, including same sex couples, who are in an enduring family relationships to adopt jointly.”
Announcing the changes, deputy education minister Euan Robson pointed out that gay couples, can, to all intents and purposes, adopt at present - both partners are assessed together but only one can apply to adopt while the other must apply for a residence order.
However, Robson said that “This confusing legal position needs to be addressed.
“The Executive supports the group's unanimous recommendation, set within the context of decisions being made in the best interests of the child.”
The planned changes have outraged the Scottish Catholic Church. Cardinal Keith O’Brien has said that the plans to allow gay couples to adopt were “clearly not in the best interests of children."
“The proposals to permit homosexual couples to adopt are contrary to the common good. Such a measure would distort the understanding of the family, cause harm to children and promote the status of homosexual relationships,” O''Brien said.
"Homosexual unions are notoriously fragile and unstable and the small number of homosexual couples living together make the suggestion that this measure would increase the number of potential adoptive parents unrealistic.
“Sadly, demands for parental rights for homosexual partners are more to do with fulfilling their wish for status rather than meeting needs of children.”
Earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI referred to unions between people of the same sex as "pseudo-marriage" calling them "expressions of an anarchical freedom, which passes itself off, wrongly, for a true liberation of man."
O’Brien said that his “words deserve our attention."
The Executive will also modernise and improve the law on adoption to provide better support, speed up the handling of adoption cases, and introduce a new Permanence Order, giving long-term stability to children who cannot live with their birth families but for whom adoption is not the best option.
