Madam, - Prof Patricia Casey tells us (March 3rd), "sex between married couples usually leads to children". Really? So most couples are having sex only 2-3 times over the course of their married lives?!
I must warn my friends to rethink marriage! Seriously, though, that a psychiatrist holds such anachronistic views is quite frightening.
Instead of selectively picking studies that simply support one person's bias, I will cite the pre-eminent organisation for the scientific study of human behaviour and child development, the American Psychological Association (APA) - the professional governing body of America's 148,000 psychologists. Based on a critical analysis of extensive research on the topic of same-sex parenting, the APA determined the following ( http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/parents.html):
1. "There is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation: lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children."
2. "Research has shown that the adjustment, development, and psychological well-being of children is unrelated to parental sexual orientation and that the children of lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those of heterosexual parents to flourish."
3. "The APA opposes any discrimination based on sexual orientation in matters of adoption, child custody and visitation, foster care, and reproductive health services."
As if that is not enough, the American Psychiatric Association, which represents America's 38,000 specialist mental health doctors, issued a policy document in 2002 stating that it too "supports initiatives which allow same-sex couples to adopt and co-parent children and supports all the associated legal rights, benefits, and responsibilities which arise from such initiatives", based on the fact that "numerous studies over the last three decades consistently demonstrate that children raised by gay or lesbian parents exhibit the same level of emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as children raised by heterosexual parents". (http://archive.psych.org/edu/other_res/lib_archives/archives/200214.pdf).
Now, can we please be done with Patricia Casey's couching of her own personal opinion in terms of scientific evidence? The scientific consensus is decidedly against her. She is entitled to her opinion - rational or not.
But she is trying to mislead people into believing that her own view is the scientific orthodoxy when it is, in fact, anything but. If we are, indeed, to be rational about the debate, the above findings speak for themselves. - Yours, etc,
IAN KELLEHER,
Beresford Street,
Dublin 7.