A child should be raised by its biological parents

It is accepted that ‘best practice’ for the wellbeing of a child, its parents and society is for that child to be raised in a family with its biological parents.

This ‘best practise’ is not always attainable and we must acknowledge the great care provided to children by adoptive and foster parents and by often heroic single parents. In every other sphere of life, ‘best practice’ is held up as the gold standard that we must do everything to achieve and maintain. Why then would we seek to discard the gold standard for marriage, the family and our society?

Our Constitution enshrines ‘The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of marriage, on which the family is founded’ (Art 43.1.1.). This legally binding pledge is not made on religious grounds but because, ‘The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law (Art 41.1.1)