Chris Barton, professor of family law and director of the centre for study of the family at Staffordshire University writes:

As is fashion in family law, I think that it is possible to reduce the temperature of the debate about who should or should not be allowed to adopt children.

I think it is possible to sit logically on the fence on this issue and I will attempt to explain why.

The issue of adoption is always presented as a big yes or no issue with no room for compromise.

Only if you can be absolutely sure that it would never, ever be right for a certain group of people to adopt should you then ban them by law.

Suppose a child has lived with people of the same sex, two gay women for example. The girl is 13 and the daughter of one of the women. She is happy and very successful.

The husband was a bastard. He hit his wife and was rotten to his daughter but he is now dead and out of the scene completely.

All the evidence is that this child is smashing, has received glowing reports and it is all down to her mother and her partner.

Only if you are sure that it is wrong should you introduce a law saying that the same sex people shouldn't adopt.

But only if you are sure should you outlaw something and put it on the statute book to prevent it happening. You don't have to be absolute. If you outlaw something then you can't use your judgement or discretion.

Let's suppose a couple have been together for a long time but they don't wish to be married. They make a decision not to be married and it is a positive one.

The reports are excellent and they have fostered lots of kids.

Are you going to take a child away from them and perhaps put the youngster with a couple who are married but who could end up getting divorced.

On the face of it, it is a seductive argument to increase the number of children in care who are adopted.

Shamefully, the life choices of children in care nationally are absolutely awful and degrading.

If you put children out for adoption then you shift the case to a couple and you have hundreds of those lined up.

But the damage may have been done and it may be irretrievable and the children could be back in care. I am only issuing this as a caution, it is not a panacea.

The issue is how you place a child from the outset and that is where judgement has to play a part.

Used courtesy of the The Sentinel