By John-Henry Westen and Gudrun Schultz
NEW YORK, July 7, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexual couples are increasingly interested in parenting children a recent survey found, with the number of couples planning for children more than doubling since 2002.
Conducted by OpusComm Group and Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the survey found two-thirds of lesbians and a third of homosexual men plan to bring children into their homes within the next three years. Those numbers are a striking increase over 2002, when just 18 percent of lesbians and 5 percent of homosexual men said they wanted to parent children.
Only 21 percent of lesbians surveyed and just 5 percent of homosexual men said they presently have a child living in their home.
Pro-family advocates are expressing their concern with these findings. Louis DeSerres of Preserve Marriage – Protect Children’s Rights, focuses specifically on the rights of children as the main reason for opposition to same-sex “marriage.”
DeSerres told LifeSiteNews.com that homosexual “marriage” increases the risk “that children will become commodities and traded as such.” He explained: “Since with homosexual ‘marriage’ couples cannot have children naturally, they have to go to surrogate mothers, egg donors, anonymous sperm donors, etc. In some jurisdictions surrogate motherhood is prohibited like in Quebec and France so they go to other areas especially California and do it there. If they can’t find surrogate mothers to carry a child for free the temptation will be very strong to use monetary incentives.”
Such monetary inducement for assistance with artificial procreation is already rampant. DeSerres recalled that in early 2006 a Montreal investigative reporter found 6 women offering eggs and who, over the course of discussions, were demanding payments of up to $10,000. “We’re getting into the buying and selling of children,” warned DeSerres.
DeSerres also pointed out that “Surrogacy and anonymous sperm donors which are the only ways gays and lesbians can bring children in to the world, means that we will have more children deprived of their natural right to have a mother and father. How can such a child claim his equality rights? He is deprived of having a mother or a father without consultation and the tragedy is there is absolutely no remedy for this discrimination.”
The poll was conducted online. About 7,500 people filled out the hour-long survey, responding to lifestyle and consumer-based questions.