Church condemns move to allow gay couples to adopt

GAY couples will be allowed to adopt children under controversial proposals which have been condemned as "gravely immoral" by the Catholic Church.

Euan Robson, the deputy education minister, announced the radical overhaul of adoption laws which will enable unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to adopt jointly.

But the move provoked an angry response from the Catholic Church and a warning from the Church of Scotland that children were best brought up within marriage.

Speaking at a conference on adoption in Dundee, Mr Robson said unmarried couples could "to all intents and purposes" adopt at present, as both partners were assessed together, but only one could apply to adopt while the other had to seek a residence order.

Mr Robson added: "This confusing legal position needs to be addressed." He said that the Executive would change the law "at the earliest opportunity" after accepting the unanimous recommendation of a group set up under Sheriff-Principal Graham Cox to consider adoption laws.

The group concluded that unmarried couples wishing to adopt would have to be living as partners in an enduring family relationship, and that adoption should be set within the context of "decisions being made in the best interests of the child".

The minister said the Executive also backed the group's proposal that any couple being assessed as adoptive parents would undergo a rigorous examination of their relationship to make sure it "provides stability for the child and to explore in depth their parenting abilities". He said the proposed "permanence orders" - an assessment of the stability of the prospective adoptive parents' relationship - were the "cornerstone" of the overhaul.

But Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, said the plan was "clearly not in the best interests of children". He said: "Such a measure would distort the understanding of the family, cause harm to children and promote the status of homosexual relationships.

"Homosexual unions are notoriously fragile and unstable, and the small number of homosexual couples living together make the suggestion that this measure would increase the number of potential adoptive parents unrealistic."

Cardinal O'Brien added: "To place children in such a situation is to put them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. This is gravely immoral and in open contradiction to the principle, recognised in the UN Convention on the rights of the child, that the best interests of the child, as the weaker and more vulnerable party, are to be the paramount consideration in every case."

Morag Mylne, convener of the Church of Scotland's church and society council, said: "For a child, welfare is seen in terms of security and happiness and stability and a loving environment.

"The church sees marriage as the best way of providing exactly that situation of stability and security and happiness."

The number of adoptions in Scotland has fallen from around 1,000 a year 20 years ago to around 400 a year now.