Insufficient evidence to support same-sex claim

IN your report of a conference (May 5) supporting same-sex marriage, you quote Prof Sheila Greene of TCD to the effect that children raised by same-sex parents do just as well as those raised by opposite-sex couples.

With all due respect to Prof Greene, there is simply not enough available evidence to make such a bold claim.

The studies of children raised by same-sex parents involve, at most, a few dozen children and the great majority of these studies are bedevilled by serious methodological flaws.

In the Katherine Zappone and Ann-Louise Gilligan case before the High Court in 2006, Justice Elizabeth Dunne considered the evidence regarding children raised by same-sex parents and concluded, correctly, that the evidence is inconclusive.

The two women at the centre of the case wanted their Canadian union recognised for Irish purposes. It is important to note where the burden of proof lies in this debate. It does not rest with those who say a child, ideally, should have a loving mother and father.

Rather it rests on those who say there is no special value in having a loving mother and father and that having a loving parent, or parents, of whatever sex, is just as good.

The claim that children do just as well when raised by two men or two women as they would when raised by a man and a woman is tantamount to the claim that there is no particular value in having a father or in having a mother. We will need plenty of evidence before we can accept such a radical claim.

Tom O’Gorman

The Iona Institute

23 Merrion Square

Dublin 2