Scottish gay couples to be allowed to adopt next week
Scottish gay
couples will be able to adopt (Photo: D Sharon Pruitt)
Gay couples in Scotland will be permitted
to adopt children together from next week.
Currently, a gay person can adopt a child
but their partner has no legal rights or responsibilities as a parent.
The new provision will come into law on
Monday September 28th and will bring Scotland in line with England and Wales on
gay adoptions.
It was welcomed by Carl Watt, the director
of Stonewall Scotland, who said: “What all children need and deserve most of
all is a safe, secure, loving and stable home environment and same sex couples
are equally able to provide this as opposite sex couples.
“This legislation also means that there
will be hopefully fewer children in care homes and more with homes and families
of their own.”
Adoptions by gay individuals in Scotland
are thought to be rare, with only two cases in Edinburgh.
The Catholic church in Scotland has
already criticised the new rights, saying that gay relationships are not stable
enough to care for children.
Spokesman Peter Kearney told the Herald:
"Children need security and stability and civil partnerships and same-sex
relationships are profoundly unstable.
“This change is unlikely to have an effect
on the shortage of adoptive parents because there are very few same-sex couples
interested in adoption.
“It would have been better if the
government had launched a campaign to encourage heterosexual married couples to
consider adopting.”