Rights to parent

Submitted by Louise Sales on Thu, 16/02/2012 - 16:32

Archbishop Hickey has made an emotive call that people ‘not be seduced by the lie that any form of relationship is suitable for children’. His comments are said to be based on a report commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby.  Clearly the findings of such a report cannot be regarded as independent. I prefer to rely on sources such as the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which found that ‘There is no persuasive evidence that children raised by single parents or by gays and lesbians are harmed or disadvantaged by that fact alone’.

There is plenty of evidence that demonstrates that the sexual orientation of parents does not appear to be a determinant of the success of a child’s development. The relevant factor is ‘good’ parenting rather than ‘single’, ‘father’ or ‘mother’ parenting.

The lesbian and gay law reform legislation passed by the last Labor Government in WA, recognises that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals have the same rights as other citizens in Western Australia and are equal before the law. It is logical to infer from the Archbishop’s comments that he would deny access to IVF and adoption to anyone other than married hetero-sexual couples. This would flout the law as it stands in Western Australia and return us to the days of bigotry and discrimination.  This would be a sad day for all Western Australians.

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