LONDON, November 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – More than one in three people in the U.K. believe that single people (37 per cent) and homosexual couples (38 per cent) should not be allowed to adopt according to a survey of over 1000 adults released by the children’s charity, Action for Children yesterday.
More than eight in 10 (87 per cent) who thought that homosexual couples or single people shouldn’t be allowed to adopt said that it was because they thought that children need both a male and female role model. Meanwhile, over three quarters (76 per cent) felt it would lead to the breakdown of the traditional family and would not be in the best interests of the child.
Susan Cotton, adoption manager at Action for Children, which carries out adoptions to homosexual couples, said she found the results of the survey “shocking and disappointing.”
The polling company ICM interviewed a random sample of 1007 adults aged 18+ by telephone between 17-19 October 2008. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results were weighted to the profile of all adults.
The findings from the National Adoption Survey 2008(1), launched for National Adoption Week (10-14 November) included:
– Only one in 10 said that they were likely to consider adopting a child (13 per cent)
– More than one in 10 people think that unmarried couples shouldn’t adopt (15 per cent)
– Nearly one third think that single women shouldn’t be allowed to adopt (30 per cent)
– More than two in five people think that single men shouldn’t be allowed to adopt (43 per cent)
– Two in five people think that male gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to adopt (40 per cent)
– More than a third thought that female gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to adopt (36 per cent)
The survey also revealed interesting differences between what men and women thought about who should and shouldn’t be allowed to adopt:
– More than 50 per cent of men thought that single men should not be allowed to adopt compared to only a third of women who held this view (35 per cent).
– 38 per cent of men thought that single women shouldn’t be allowed to adopt compared to 23 per cent of women who held this view.
– Nearly 50 per cent of men think that male couples shouldn’t be allowed to adopt compared to less than one third of women.