Statement against homosexual adoption sent to Spanish lawmakers

Madrid, Spain, Jun 28, 2004 / 22:00 pm

An independent organization called “Professionals for Ethics” has sent a statement entitled, “Children Have Rights” to all Spanish lawmakers this week in which they express their opposition to adoption by homosexual couples.

Signed by more than 500 professionals including doctors, lawyers, teachers, psychologists and social workers, the statement explains with detail the educational, psychological and ethical reasons for which adoption by homosexuals would be detrimental to children.

“Our experience as professionals shows us that from the first months of life, children develop a sense of father and mother regardless of whether or not they know their biological parents.  Thus the masculine figure to whom they are closest becomes their father, while the woman who is closest to the child becomes, in their eyes, their mother,” the statement says.

“The rejection or prevention of adoption by homosexual couples,” the statement adds, “has been expressed by lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists and other public figures.  Such is the case with experts such as members from the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, and socialist leaders such as Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ibarra and Lionel Jospin.  Likewise, the European Human Rights Tribunal agreed with the French government in 2002 when it prevented the homosexual Philippe Frette from adopting a child.”

The statement also underscored that “there is no right of an adult to have a child, either naturally nor by adoption,” but children do indeed have the right “to grow up in the same conditions and with the same opportunities as the rest of their friends who have a father and a mother.”