(Good Morning America) California, the battleground state for the arguments for and against same-sex marriage, is now considering an unconventional law that would allow children to be legally granted more than two parents.
The bill -- SB1476 -- would apply equally to men and women, and to homosexual or heterosexual relationships. Proposed by State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, it has passed the Senate and awaits an Assembly vote.
Leno cites the evolving American family, which includes surrogacy
arrangements, same-sex marriages and reproductive techniques that
involve multiple individuals...
"Most children have at most two parents, but some children have more
than two people in their lives who have been a child's parent in every
way," says Leno in his fact sheet on the bill. "For example, a child
raised from birth by a biological mother and a non-biological father may
also have a relationship with his or her biological father.
"In such a situation, the child may consider both adults in the home to
be parents, as well as his or her biological father. In such a case, it
may be in the child's best interests to have a legally protected
relationship with all three of the parental figures in his or her life..."
Glenn T. Stanton, director of Global Family Formation Studies for the
conservative group Focus on the Family, argues that the bill appears to
advocate for children's rights, but in reality gives adults legal
protection to create "radical families."
"We hear all this celebratory talk about 'new families,' but there is no
sociological, psychological or medical data showing any of these new
family forms have served to the elevate the general physical, mental,
educational or developmental well-being of children in any meaningful
way," said Stanton.
"That job is best done for children by their own mother and father," he
said. "And this bill would only take us farther down the trail of more
'experimental families' that fulfill adult desires, but consistently
fail our children..."
Some legal experts in California question the impact of such a law
on an array of issues like tax deductions and wrongful death suits.
Leno acknowledges that the law might be applied in "rare circumstances"
and only when it is required "for the best interests of the child."
"Some of the hyperbolic corners of the opposition are suggesting there
could be four, six or eight parents," he said. "But I think that it will
not be used when a child has too many parents, but when there are too
few..."
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