Adoption agency victory

A Catholic child adoption agency has won a High Court case that could allow it to lawfully discriminate against same-sex couples.

In Catholic Care v the Charity Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission [2010] EWHC 520 (Ch), Catholic Care sought an exemption from the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007, which make it unlawful to discriminate on the ground of sexual orientation in the provision of goods or services.

The agency, which has achieved success in finding parents for “hard to place” children, argued that it operates within the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, including a strong belief in the sanctity of marriage. It provides services to couples only if they are married. It claimed it had found it impracticable to find a way round the regulations and continue operating.
Delivering judgment, Mr Justice Briggs said the “submission that differential treatment which is not founded on the special needs either of the proposed adoptive parents or the children, or upon any other class of justification recognised by the developing jurisprudence on Art 14, must be discriminatory commands real respect.

 [However] the very unusual predicament of Catholic Care, its status as an adoption agency of last resort for ‘hard to place’ children and the arguably pre-eminent needs of those children who will otherwise be left unadopted may constitute a very special and unusual case for recognition under Art 14.”