Court looks out for child’s best interest
The state Supreme Court in a 6-0 decision last week ruled that a child may be adopted by a parent’s legal partner in cases where the partners are the same sex. This ruling is not so much pro gay rights as it is pro children rights.
Children will gain the financial, emotional and physical support that comes from having two parents. This added protection allows for health insurance coverage, inheritance and death benefits.
That the court was united demonstrates that it is looking out for the best interests of children.
The Adoption Act does not preclude two unmarried same-sex partners from adopting a child. When the child is unrelated to the parents-in-waiting and has no legal parent, the adoption can already proceed without a hitch.
But when the child is related to one of the partners, the parent had to relinquish his or her rights before the court would consider allowing both to adopt.
The court was asked to decide if adoption can proceed in the event the parent does not wish to relinquish those rights.
As Chief Justice Stephen Zappala wrote in the ruling, “It is therefore absurd to prohibit their adoptions merely because their children were either the biological or adopted children of one of the partners prior to the filing of the adoption petition.”
This ruling is expected to impact children of gay partners who were conceived through artificial insemination or who were adopted previously by just one of the partners.
While the ruling will make it easier for same-sex couples to adopt, it does not mean that these adoptions will be automatic.
Zappala wrote, “Upon the showing of cause, the trial court is afforded discretion to determine whether the adoption petition should, nevertheless, be granted. The exercise of such discretion does not open the door to unlimited adoptions by legally unrelated adults. Such decisions will always be confined by a finding of cause and a determination of the best interests of the child in each individual case.”
The trial court will still look out for the child’s interests.
Even though it is hard to disagree with the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, which opposes adoption by gay couples, that a two parent family with a mother and father is the best environment for a child, it would be wrong to short-change children from deriving the most benefits from the families in which they are raised.
Having two legal parents provides these benefits.