Legislative proposals on adoptions should not be included in a Bill on Civil Unions but in the Adoptions Act, Opposition MP Chris Said said in Parliament this evening.

Speaking during the debate on the bill to introduce civil unions, Dr Said, who is the general secretary of the Nationalist Party, said that as the Marriage Act did not refer to adoptions, neither should an act introducing civil unions.

Adoption was not an issue on the rights of a couple but on the rights of children, he said.

The Opposition, Dr Said said, was proposing that the debate on adoption by same sex couples should be widened to include an analyses, debate and serious study on the adoption regime in Malta.

Noting that he and his wife were parents to two adopted children, he said that whatever was done in the field had to be done with certainety in the interest of the children.

“Adoption is not a couple’s right… it is done to give children the best future possible when for several reasons they cannot be brought up by their natural parents.”

Dr Said said the Opposition was proposing that Parliament’s Select Committee for Family Affairs should analysed the matter, commission serious studies and embark on a wide consulation process on how adoption structures in Malta were working and the effect they were having on children.

As part of the process and in an agreed timeframe, a study on the social impact of adoption by same sex couples should also be carried out.

The committee should then present its conclusions to the House to see whether legislative changes were needed. The committee could also move administrative proposals to improve the adoption process.

Dr Said said other amendments being proposed by the Opposition were intended to establish a difference between a civil union and marriage.

Although one was not better than the other, the two were not the same.

Civil unions, Dr Said said, should only available to adults. The opposition believed that under no circumstances should civil unions be allowed between an adult and a minor or between two minors.

The Opposition was also proposing the removal the removal from the bill of certain aspects of marriage which should not apply to a civil union. These included clauses which in marriage could lead to an annulment, such as relative or absolute impotence as well as the sexual act.

These amendments, he insisted, did not, in any way, lessen the dignity of a civil union or a relationship between two people of the same sex.