Facts
- The Adoption and Children Act 2002 legalised joint adoption by cohabiting heterosexual and homosexual couples in England and Wales.1 The Act came into force on 30 December 2005. By February 2006 10 adoption applications had been received from same-sex couples.2
- The 2002 Act replaced the 1976 Adoption Act, which allowed joint adoption only by a married couple. The 1976 Act also allowed single people to adopt.
- Some 95% of all adoptions are by married couples. The remaining 5% are by single persons.3
- The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 legalised joint adoption by cohabiting heterosexual and homosexual couples in Scotland.
Biblical arguments
Adoption by cohabiting heterosexual couples and homosexual couples is radically opposed to the Judaeo-Christian family ethic which views marriage as the only right context for sexual relations and the procreation of children.
The book of Genesis states: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”.5 Parenthood is male and female. Children need male and female role models. The fifth of the Ten Commandments enshrines this.6
In Christian understanding, children are not possessions but a gift from God. There is no ‘right’ to have children. To “Be fruitful and multiply”7 is the normal expectation of marriage, though it is recognised that not all married couples can have children. Having children is one of the three purposes of marriage universally recognised across the Christian Churches.8
Procreation is tied to marriage. Children are not to be spawned in random relations, but begotten in arrangements in which their parents are bound to their offspring by the ties of law as well as nature. The intention is for parents to be as committed to the nurture of their children as they are as committed to each other as husband and wife.
Marriage is best for raising children
- The Government itself has stated “marriage is still the surest foundation for raising children and remains the choice of the majority of people in Britain.”9
- Children need a mother and a father. They need both complementary role models.
- The adoption law review concluded that only married couples should be allowed to jointly adopt, on the grounds married couples were more likely to provide the stability and security that the child needed because married couples have made a joint, publicly recognised, legal commitment to each other.10
- The Office for National Statistics has found that co-habiting couples are six and a half times more likely to split up after the birth of a child than a married couple.11
Key points
- The Government’s justification for changing the law was to increase adoptions of children in care. The Government argued there were not enough married couples adopting and changing the law would ‘widen the pool’ of available adopters.
- This argument was a red herring. The problem was not a lack of married couples wanting to adopt, but bureaucracy and political correctness which deterred and prevented many married couples from doing so. The Government has been addressing this problem. During 2004-05, even before the Act came fully into effect, 1,000 more children were adopted than in 1999-2000. This represents a 38% increase.12
- The real agenda for changing the law was to legitimise and normalise co-habitation and homosexuality – to use ‘children as trophies’.
“I’m not in favour of gay couples seeking to adopt children because I question whether that is the right start in life. We should not see children as trophies. Children, in my judgement, and I think it’s the judgement of almost everyone including single parents, are best brought up where you have two natural parents in a stable relationship. There’s no question about that. What we know from the evidence is that, generally speaking, that stability is more likely to occur where the parents are married than where they are not.”
The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, when Home Secretary (4 November 1998, on the Today Programme)
- 1Adoption by cohabiting heterosexual and homosexual couples remains unlawful in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill 2006 proposes to allow joint adoption by such couples in Scotland. In July 2006 the Government announced a consultation on plans to allow joint adoption by homosexual and cohabiting couples in Northern Ireland.
- 2House of Commons, Hansard, 16 February 2006, col. 2253 wa
- 3Surveying Adoption: A Comprehensive Analysis of Local Authority Adoptions 1998-1999 (England), BAAF, 2000, page 88
- 4See Leviticus 18:22; Mathew 5:27-28; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9
- 5Genesis 2:24
- 6Exodus 20:12
- 7Genesis 1:28
- 8The others being the mutual society, help and comfort of man and wife; and as a remedy against sin
- 9Supporting Families, (Green Paper), The Home Office, 1998, page 4, paragraph 8
- 10Jacqui Smith, House of Commons, Hansard, 29 November 2001, col. 383
- 11Kiernan, K, ‘Childbearing Outside Marriage in Western Europe’, Population Trends, Winter 1999, Office for National Statistics, The Stationary Office, page 19
- 12Department for Education and Skills Press Release, Children Looked After in England (Including Adoptions and Care Leavers), 2004-05, SFR 51/2005, 24 November 2005
