§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the adoption of children by homosexual couples; what assessment he has made of research into whether it provides a stable foundation for the raising of children; and what assessment he has made of possible gender confusion in children that are adopted by homosexual couples. [81067]
§ Jacqui SmithThe Adoption and Children Act 2002, which amends the Adoption Act 1976, provides that those who will be eligible to apply to adopt in the future are married couples, single people and two people (whether of different sexes or the same sex) living as partners in an enduring family relationship.
Under the existing Adoption Act 1976, single people adopt, regardless of sexual orientation, but only married couples may adopt jointly. It is open for one umarried partner to adopt a child and for the other to obtain parental responsibility by applying for a residence order in respect of the child. This denies the child the permanence and security of having two parents.
Enabling unmarried couples to apply to adopt jointly will widen the pool of potential adoptive parents, thereby ensuring that more vulnerable children will have the chance of the family life that adoption can bring. It will also allow the child to have a legal relationship with both parents, rather than just one, and therefore will increase the stability and security for the child.
In order to be approved as adoptive parents, any couple is required to undergo a stringent assessment process carried out by an adoption agency over a period of several months. The assessment process will include rigorous scrutiny of the stability of the relationship and their suitability to bring up children in that they can provide a loving family environment for a child. Ultimately the court will decide whether or not to make the adoption order.
98WRecognising the strongly held views for and against same-sex parenting, the Government has sought to draw conclusions from the various studies, which have been conducted and published in academic journals.
No reliable research to date has identified significant differences between lesbian and gay parents and their heterosexual counterparts, or between the children raised by those groups.
A number of studies have examined gender-role behaviour among children of lesbian mothers. The studies did not find any differences between children of lesbian and heterosexual mothers in toy preferences, activities, interests or occupational choices relevant to sex-role conventions. Details of the studies cited may be found in the letter from my noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) to Lord Brennan of 20 June 2002, copies of which are available in the House of Commons Library.
The Government's objective through changing the law to allow unmarried couples to adopt jointly is to increase the number of children who have the opportunity, through adoption, to grow up as part of a loving, stable and permanent family.