Adoption By Same Sex Couple

Adoption by same sex couples”

Discrimination represents a social phenomenon that violates the fundamental rights and dignity that all human beings are attained to. This happens unconsciously in everyday practices and uses among common people and authorities. Discrimination in Mexico and the world, does not only affects a specific group of the population, but negatively impacts in a great number of persons for various reasons such as adoption by same sex couples.

Adoption by same sex couples consists basically in that an abandoned child could be adopted, within the law, by couples conformed of two persons of the same sex. This figure is actually accepted in more than 14 countries and at least three geographic jurisdictions such as Mexico City, which allowed adoption by same sex couples since 2009.

One of the most relevant arguments against the adoption by same sex couples derives from a conservative perspective and it points out the supposed damages to be cause to children if they are raised by same sex couples. Notwithstanding, the American Psychologist Association in 2009, through empirical research, affirmed that minors who grew up under same sex parents did not showed up differences in terms of health and development when compared to minors raised by heterosexual parents. The association indicated as well that no serious and convincing study had empirically proven otherwise. In the other hand, there are also relevant arguments on favor the adoption by same sex couples, as example:

Minorities rights: By not respecting and defending the rights of the minorities, and hurting them through exclusion and denial of recognition of them as individuals who have rights, discrimination surpasses the ambit of the individual and is making impossible for interpersonal relationships based of respect, equality, and mutual recognition to happen. It is impossible to build a society if we first do not recognize and protect the minorities.

The current adoption law: This does not establish being heterosexual as a requirement to be legible to adopt. Nowadays there are many same sex couples that raise their children, being them adopted by one of the partners or being them test-tube babies. According to widely known law principles, “everything which is not forbidden is allowed”, and given the case that there is no scientific backup to deny same sex couples to adopt children, it is clear that there is no problem identified to this practice.

Future benefits: According to the UNICEF, there are 1.6 million orphan children in Mexico, being the top two country with this characteristic in Latin America. This statistic reveals how crucial and urgent is the necessity of a public policy that promotes adoptions as to integrate these children into a formal family. The adoption by same sex couples opens a door to a better future of these children

...