Group demands changes to offer adopted people basic rights

The Government has been urged to offer basic legal rights to adopted people before allowing for children in care and marital children to be legally adopted.

Under the terms of the children’s referendum, it is proposed to remove barriers to adopting children in care and in long-term foster arrangements.

Currently, a child living in long-term foster care, abandoned by their married parents effectively cannot be adopted unless it is proven their parents failed in their duties towards them and that this is likely to continue until the child’s 18th birthday.