The Christian Institute

There are increasing calls to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. Whilst this idea is popular with many social workers, opinion polls show that the public strongly disagrees. Claims are routinely made that homosexual parenting is at least as good if not better than parenting in the traditional two-parent family. Most concerned with adoption placements would admit that ultimately this question should be decided by the evidence. Social work’s concern is to act in the best interests of the child. To go against the evidence would mean adoption because of the adopter’s interests and not the child’s. Patricia Morgan has looked at the evidence in meticulous detail. She has produced what is the most comprehensive review of research on same-sex parenting ever published in Europe. The evidence is very clear for any who wish to consider it.

Patricia Morgan is a sociologist specialising in family policy and criminology. Her books include Delinquent Fantasies, 1978; Facing up to family income, 1989; Families in Dreamland, 1992; Farewell to the Family?, 1995; Are Families Affordable?, 1996; Who needs parents?, 1996; Adoption and the Care of Children, 1998; Adoption: The Continuing Debate, 1999; and Marriage-Lite, 2000.

“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, on the Today programme,
4 November 1998