Two homosexual female couples awarded adoptions upon appeal

On 15 February 2018, the Appeals Court in Versailles, France validated two adoption applications for children born by assisted-reproductive technology (ART) for 2 homosexual female couples. 
Last year, on June 29, 2017, the High Court in Versailles had refused the applications for full adoption on the grounds that “perhaps one day, a hypothetical father would come forth to claim” his child.
For the Appeals Court, “the possibility that the biological father would one day desire to file claim for his child (was) purely hypothetical without any consistent evidence”.
In September 2014, the Court of Cassation gave a verdict aimed at legitimizing full adoption by the female spouse of a woman who had obtained the child abroad by artificial reproduction with an anonymous donor.  Since then, several French Appeals’ Courts have given similar rulings. In the “Cassation Opinion” dated September 22, 2014, n°s. 14-70.006 and 14-70.007: “The use of assisted-reproductive techniques (ART) with artificial insemination by an anonymous donor abroad, does not preclude the child from being adopted by the mother’s female partner, provided the legal conditions for adoption are met and that it is in the best interest of the child. “
During the debates on same-sex marriage Alliance VITA already warned against this domino effect. The important issue remains that of the interest of the child. As Alliance VITA has pointed out invariably, the adoption process is being turned upside-down. Adoption is not intended to “obtain” a child for people who have conceived it illegally. Adoption is intended to provide a family to a child who is already living, a child who has suffered a significant trauma from being accidentally deprived of his father and / or mother. Instead of healing an injury, the adoption process is now being used in these cases to endorse the initial abuse of the child.