Gay Couples and Child Adoption by Couples Essay

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Gay Couples and Child Adoption

Adoption by couples of the same sex has recently been legalized in almost 14 countries, however it has been remained illegal in most of countries as debate spins on in several countries as to whether it should be legalized or not. The concern of the opposing side is whether gay couples are able to adequately provide parenthood.

According to a consensus which was arrived at by psychological, medical as well as social communities, children who have been raised by gay parents are also able to adjust well just like children who are raised by heterosexual parents. This conclusion has also been highly accepted within the developmental psychology field, (Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth & K. Lee Lerner, 2006). As derived from the available evidence in the field, the Florida's Third Court of Appeal in 2010 was satisfied that this issue was far beyond dispute that it will be irrational to hold otherwise: children's best interest are not preserved through prohibiting gay adoption.

The researches on outcomes for children with gay parents that exists tend to include limited studies that consider the specific adoption case. Additionally, where adoption is mentioned in the studies, there is failure by these studies in distinguishing between results for unrelated children vs. The ones in their original family or step families, resulting to a more general case research of gay parenting being used in countering the opponents' claims of gay. One of the studies which addressed the question directly evaluated the outcomes of adoptees who were less than 3 years old placed in one of 56 gay and lesbians' households from their infancy. The finding of this study was that there were no significant associations between parental sexual orientation and adjustment of a child, creating basis for argument that gays are capable of being parents and that parental sexual orientation is never related to child adjustment or parental skills.

In United States, attempts to stop the practice through legislation has been introduced in most jurisdictions, however, such efforts were thwarted because of the exception of Arkansas Act 1. An agreement was reached at by the debating parties that Welfares of Children alone are the ones to dictate policy.

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People who support gay adoption argue that most of the children are in need of homes and they claim that since parenting ability is unrelated to sexual orientation, they should be allowed by the law to adopt children (Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth & K. Lee Lerner (Eds) 2006).

On the other hand, people who are opposed to this idea, argue that the several alleged instances of promiscuity, drugs, suicide and depression as well as many alleged instances of domestic violence are able to affect children. Moreover, absence of male and female role models may result to maladjustment on the part of the child. The reaction of Catholic religious group in 2004 concerning the issue affirmed the finding of the studies that higher than average abuse rates are among heterosexual families than families consisting of heterosexual parents. .

Many of the professional organizations have come out in defense of gay rights to adopt children. For example, American Psychological Association has contributed by supporting adoption by the same sex couple, indicating that social prejudices harm gays, however, there is no evidence that their parenting is capable of causing harm, ( Paige, R.U., 2005). This has also been affirmed by the American Medical Association supporting adoption by gay couples, posing that very little exists against this practice and lack of formal recognition is able to cause health-care disparities for children from same-sex parents.

There have been contradicting voices however, for instanceBritain's last Catholic adoption society gave an announcement that if they were going to be forced by legislation to place children with the same-sex couples, they were to stop finding homes for children. This was as well supported by Muslim Council of Britain, and even the Catholic Charities of Boston went ahead to end their founding….....

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