On Wednesday (1 November) the Education Committee of the Scottish Parliament is expected to debate plans to allow homosexual and unmarried heterosexual couples to adopt children. Under current law only married couples and, in special circumstances, single people can adopt.

The Christian Institute has published a report which criticises the plans. According to the Institute, the plans are more concerned with the rights of adults rather than the best interests of children. The key arguments in the Institute's report include:

• Placing a child with a homosexual couple denies the child either a male or female role model.
• Studies into same-sex parenting repeatedly show negative outcomes for children across a range of social indicators such as health and education.
• Unmarried heterosexual couples are far less stable than married couples. Government statistics show that unmarried heterosexual couples are 650% more likely than married couples to split up when a child enters the relationship.
• Social science research consistently shows that a household headed by a married couple is by far the best environment for raising children.
• With a 90% drop-out rate for applicants, too many married couples are currently put off adopting or are rejected for politically-correct reasons.
• Married couples have been refused because they were 'too fat', 'too rich', have too many books in the house, or because they were church-goers. Political correctness is the problem in adoption, not the solution.

Copies of the report can be downloaded from:
http://www.christianscotland.org/adoption/booklet_summer06/booklet_summer06.htm A summary can be downloaded from:
http://www.christianscotland.org/adoption/booklet_summer06/summary_summer06.pdf

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said: "Vulnerable children deserve the best. Research shows that marriage is the best environment for raising children. There are over one million married couples in Scotland, that's a big enough pool of potential adopters. Children need a male and female role model and they need permanence. That is why married couples should be the only couples permitted to adopt."