Thursday, October 24, 2002

A story released today by CNSNews.com reports that when the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed adoptions by same-sex couples earlier this year, it did so based on insufficient and inaccurate data, a group of dissenting AAP members has charged.

The assertion that children who grow up with same-sex parents fare as well emotionally and socially as children whose parents are heterosexual - as claimed in the February 2002 AAP report on adoption by same-sex couples - is misleading and should not be cited as fact, they said.

According to a summary of the report: "There is no systematic difference between gay and non-gay parents in emotional health, parenting skills and attitudes towards parenting. No data have pointed to any risk to children as a result of growing up in a family with one or more gay parents."

Since the report itself acknowledges a scarcity of data on the issue, many AAP members contended the organization should have published it as an opinion, not fact, or discarded it altogether, said Joseph Zanga, a professor of pediatrics and a former AAP president.

The report proved to be the last straw for some members, who for years have been disenchanted with the AAP's positions on other contentious issues involving children, including condom distribution and parental consent for abortion, Zanga said.

Joseph F. Hagan, M.D., chairman of the AAP committee on Psycho-Social Aspects of Child and Family Health - which prepared the report - said although the data is limited, the researchers produced a very good review of the available literature.

The authors relied only on research from reputable professional journals from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the University of Vermont Library, Hagan said.

"Our committee looked very hard to see if there was any evidence of harm by having children have two parents who were of the same gender, and if that data is out there, I will tell you we sure couldn't find it," Hagan said.

"There are a lot of types of non-traditional families and I think there are tremendous differences in the family, some of which can be cast as weaknesses, some of which certainly can be cast as strengths.

"But families in our nation and in the world don't all look alike. I see these families as simply another type of non-traditional family," he said.