Redefining marriage means redefining parenthood, according to Elizabeth Marquardt, director of the Institute for American Values. Speaking at a talk on Wednesday night hosted by the pro-marriage think tank Iona Institute, Ms Marquardt, a social scientist who has written several books on the topic, said that legal recognition of same sex marriage had radical implications for the status of parents.
Pointing to a series of international examples, she showed how the introduction of same sex marriage changed the definition of what constituted a parent.
“In Canada, the law that recently legalized same-sex marriage nationally also quietly erased the term 'natural parent' across the board in federal law, replacing it with the term 'legal parent',” she said.
This change shifted the focus, she added “from the mother and father who make the baby to the adults the state decides are a child’s appropriate parents”.
She also referred to the example of Spain, where the words “mother” and “father” were struck off all birth certificates, to be replaced by the terms “Progenitor A” and “Progenitor B”.
This international trend towards the recognition of same sex marriage was also having an impact in various court cases, Ms Marquardt said.
This trend was threatening to undermine parenthood “the institution that is most core to children’s very survival”, by redefining it, she went on.
These legal changes were often adult-centred rather than child-centred, she added. Pointing to the growing number of children conceived by sperm and egg donors, Ms Marquardt said that many of these children, who were now coming to adulthood, were beginning to ask serious questions about their identity.
Many were now speaking out about “the powerful impact on children’s identity when adults purposefully conceive a child with the clear intention of separating that child from a biological parent,” she continued.
“These young people often say they were denied the birthright of being raised by or at least knowing about their biological fathers. They say that this intentional denial profoundly shapes their quest to understand who they are,” Ms Marquardt went on.
Rather than simply accept the rights claims of those pursuing the gay marriage agenda, Ms Marquardt said that Ireland needed to debate the possible implications of recognising such a redefinition of marriage. Consideration of children’s rights needed to play a far bigger role in the discussion than has been the case so far, she added.
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