Scottish Cardinal urges Government to promote fostering

Following a Parliamentary statement by the Scottish Government's Children and Early Years Minister Adam Ingram on legislation to allow same-sex couples to apply to foster children, Cardinal Keith O'Brien has urged the Scottish Government to instead "launch a high profile campaign urging more couples to consider fostering".

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on a revised set of looked after children regulations, and has stated its intention to repeal the existing regulation prohibiting same-sex couples from fostering.

Commenting on the proposal Cardinal O'Brien said: "The proposals to extend the right to foster to same sex couples is as misguided and inappropriate as the previous change to allow same sex adoption. In a consultation at the time of the change in adoption law, 80% of respondents opposed the change yet the Government ignored their concerns and changed the law. I urge the Scottish Government not to jeopardise the welfare of children who need foster care in a similar way."

"There is no evidence to suggest that such a change widens the pool of potential foster carers and in any case why not simply launch a high profile campaign urging more couples to consider fostering? For my own part I appeal to Scotland's 250,000 catholic families and to the thousands of catholic
couples married in our churches every year to consider sharing the love and stability which I hope fills your homes with a child who has little or no experience of either, by offering to foster."

"A mass of evidence, attests to the instability of unmarried relationships and the instability of same sex partnerships yet worryingly it is ignored. Since less than two percent of the population is homosexual and a minority of this group are in a stable relationship, which would allow consideration as foster parents, It is difficult to see how the changes advocated can have any meaningful impact on the widening the potential pool of foster families."

Source: SCMO