Wednesday July 5, 2006

Northern Ireland to Allow Gay Partners to Adopt

By Hilary White 

BELFAST, July 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The government of Northern Ireland on Tuesday announced plans to include homosexual partners as eligibile to adopt.
 
Health Minister Paul Goggins says the change will mean that those in “civil unions” and those who are only in temporary arrangements of the same or different sexes would be able to adopt.
 
Under the current law unmarried persons can adopt children, but there was no provision for homosexual partners to adopt together.
 
This decision will bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of Great Britain, which has adopted similar measures over the last year.
 
The Belfast Telegraph quoted Fr. Aidan Troy, a well-known Catholic priest from Ardoyne who supported the move, despite what he called his support for the traditional family. “You have to start from the point of view of what is best for the child,” he said. “We need to ask can a child grow and flourish in this set of circumstances. Then we are able to look at this in relation to adoption.”
 
A more robust Christian response was forthcoming from Rev David McIlveen, of the Free Presbyterian Church, who said changes in the law to allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt would be “not only reprehensible but repulsive”.
 
“The government is trying to promote this as modernisation of the laws but it is liberalisation. It will undermine the structure of family life in Northern Ireland.”

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06070504.html

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