By Gudrun Schultz
EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic adoption agencies will retain the right to turn away prospective parents, including homosexual couples, under the proposed Adoption and Children Bill, the Scottish Executive said this week.
“Existing legislation does not prevent any adoption agency from setting its own criteria and the new bill will not change that,” an executive spokesman said.
The statement came in response to requests by Catholic Church leaders and Catholic and other faith-based adoption agencies for permission to opt out of the legislation, should it become law. The Adoption and Children Bill would allow unmarried heterosexual couples and homosexual unions to adopt children together. Under current Scottish law, only one member of an unmarried or homosexual couple can legally adopt a child.
Religious groups joined together last week in a united effort to convince MSPs that allowing unmarried and homosexual couples to adopt children was “a social experiment” which would not address the problem of insufficient adoptive homes, the Herald reported yesterday.
The Catholic Church in Scotland has strongly opposed the legislation. Roman Catholic prelate Cardinal Keith O’Brien warned that the measure would make Scotland’s orphans “guinea pigs in some distorted social experiment.”
“Such a measure would distort the understanding of the family, cause harm to children and promote the status of homosexual relationships,” Cardinal O’Brien said, as reported by scotsman.com last year. “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 asked for the inclusion of a “conscience clause” in the legislation to protect Catholic agencies from being forced to place children with homosexual couples. The government denied his request.
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Church of Scotland Backs Adoption of Children in Statement to Lawmakers
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06060808.html
Scotland Bishop Blasts Parliament Decision to Allow Gay Adoption
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022703.html
Scot Cardinal: Gay Adoption Makes Children “Guinea Pigs in Some Distorted Social Experiment”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011608.html
Scotland Bishop Says Homosexual Adoption Being Pushed by “Politically Correct Zealots”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06040607.html
Scotland’s Catholic Prelate Condemns Government Move to Legalize Gay Adoption
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jun/05061306.html