Politics
Thursday August 27, 2009
German High Court OKs Gay Adoptions
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Hilary White
KARLSRUHE, August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has declared it legal for homosexual partners to adopt children. The court decided in favour of a woman in the southern city of Schweinfurt who wanted to adopt the now three-year-old child of her female partner, with the consent of the father and social services.
A lower court had argued that such a move would be unconstitutional because it placed the rights of the partner of a parent above those of a biological parent. But the Constitutional Court rejected this, saying that "life partners" who assume the role of parents have the right to formalise that role.
"The earlier decision failed to consider the fact that the role of a child's parent is not only determined by his or her biological progenitor but based on the social-familial community caring for the child," the ruling said.
The ruling comes in the wake of a pledge in 2005 by Edmund Stoiber, the premier of the still strongly Catholic state of Bavaria who said that he intended to challenge the German government's attempt to pass a law allowing homosexuals to adopt.
Homosexuals were allowed by a 2001 law to register their liaisons as "life partnerships". Under the law, persons in such legal arrangements are allowed to adopt the biological children of their partners, but the law still prohibits adoption where there is no legal or biological relationship.
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Appeal Filed to Give D.C. Voters Right to Vote on Gay “Marriage” Law
- San Francisco Chronicle: “Open Secret” That Prop. 8 Judge is “Gay”
- Cardinal George Denounces "New Ways Ministry" as Pseudo-Catholic Organization
- Vatican: Population Growth is a Means of Overcoming Poverty, Not a Cause of It
- “Bogus Compassion” is Killing Children and Corrupting Society: Belgian Philosopher
- Indian Court Rules Born and Unborn Are Equal
- United Nations Urges Nicaragua to Legalize Abortion
- Vatican Consultant Responds to 'Completely Ignorant' IPPF Accusation
- Irony: 19-Child Duggar Family Renting Former Home of Local Planned Parenthood Leader
- Document Reveals Inconsistencies in ND's Jenkins Claims on ND88
- New Country Music Star Born as Pro-Life Ballad Climbs the Charts
- Commentary on February 8 News
- Police Refuse to Release Federal "Threat Assessment" on Wis. Pro-Lifers
- Canadian Human Rights Commission Appeals Ruling against Hate Messages Statute
- Homosexual Activist Keith Norton Dies at 69
- Letters to the Editor
Most Read this Week
- Veterans, Former Army Legal Chief Defend “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
- Planned Parenthood President Lands Spot on Ford Foundation Board
- Rabbis Warn against 'Disaster' of Open Homosexuality in the Military
- Football Pros Give Support to Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad
- Clash of the Abortion Titans: Planned Parenthood Launches 'Pro-Choice' Football Ad
- Canadian Station Pulls Pro-Life Ad – Too “Graphic”
- Hijacking the Brain — How Pornography Works
- Group Exposes Media "Fraud" at March for Life
- U.S. Sisters in Crisis after Embracing “Secular Culture”: Vatican Cardinal
- NYT: Rampant Polygamy in Gay 'Marriage' May Benefit Institution
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.