Adoption – Normative Regulations From Historical Perspective The Problem Of Adoption In Homosexual Couples

Along history, adoption has been considered as a legal and moral solution by which personal fulfillment and duty towards society could be achieved in full accordance with the generally accepted notion of family. The regulations that followed in this subject matter were in line with the historical realities, and the international norms related to this legal institution were adopted and ratified by our country as well. The fundamental rights and the best interests of the child have been the basis underlying the international conventions that established the guarantees for adoption. Even if the lack of blood connection could lead to the assumption that family ties would be vulnerable, the family's foundation requires love, mutual respect and trust. That is why in long standing couples the adoption of a child is only a strengthening of a viable, functional family life. The legal and moral issues that have lately emerged in the field of adoption are represented by the attempts of adoption by homosexual couples. In Romania, this problem is not current, because civil partnerships between same-sex persons are not legally recognized. In the states of the European Union, this issue is increasingly acute, hence the European Court of Human Rights has been appealed to in a few cases. In February 2017, the ECHR returned a positive resolution to a couple of Austrian homosexuals who considered themselves discriminated: the two women wanted to get the right to adopt the biological child of one of them. Austria has been convicted of violating the European Convention on Human Rights by differentiating between unmarried unisex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples if one of the partners wants to adopt the other's child. However, the Court maintained its own jurisprudence, establishing that limiting adoption to heterosexual married couples is not discriminatory where homosexual couples can marry.