Adoption processes no longer make any distinction between heterosexual and homosexual couples, they only seek the suitability of the home for each child, according to Jorge Urbina, who is in charge of these processes at PANI. Three couples composed of people of the same sex are already active applicants for adoption, after the entry into force of equal marriage in May 2020.
The data was confirmed by Jorge Arturo Urbina, coordinator of the Department of Adoptions of the National Children’s Trust (PANI); who pointed out that the entity manages its “assessment of suitability for adoptive purposes.”
More than 500 families made up of same-sex couples have already officially registered their marriages, since May 26th of last year, when the norms that prohibited it were officially repealed, by mandate of the Constitutional Chamber. According to data from the Civil Registry, 507 registrations were completely processed in 2020 and another nine were still being processed at the beginning of this 2021.
With the entry into force of equal marriage, it also opened the way for adoption by diverse couples. Until then, it was impossible to register for adoption and, therefore, two people of the same sex could not share family rights over the same boy or girl, like any married couple. This was recalled by Urbina, who pointed out that there were at least three legal obstacles in the Family Code that have now been dissolved (articles 14, 103 and 242 of the Family Code).
Same selection standards
Asked about the new adoption processes, the coordinator Jorge Urbina emphasized that there are three couples who will follow the same selection standards that have always been applied. As he said, “comprehensive, objective and totally objective technical-professional analyzes are carried out, to determine the suitability of each household to receive its new member”.
Urbina explained that these studies focus on “the characteristics, capacities and parental protective competencies of the applicant families and the histories, characteristics and specific requirements of minors”, as regulated by the Family Code and the Regulation for Procedures of National Adoption. No distinction is made by applicant couple.
Guarantee the best protection for the child
“The interest of the assessment and technical selection processes carried out by the PANI is to guarantee the children and adolescents who require a home, that they will be placed under the protection of the best adoptive family that can be provided to them, in terms of care, restraint and support.”
“The potentially adoptive suitability assessment processes carried out by the Adoptions Department of the PANI have not undergone any changes at the procedural or substantive level with the entry into force of equal marriage. These processes respond to comprehensive psychosocio-legal assessments, whose purpose is to determine the technical and professional way, the existence of suitable motivations, capacities and competences of a protective and attentive nature in the applicants, in order to guarantee that they will be able to assume the parental role in an ideal way, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or representation. gender”, the official specified.
Registrations advance
Apart from the adoption processes, the Civil Registry also records that seven couples made up of women have already processed the registration of their children under commaternities. In other words, they managed to get the State to recognize both of them as mothers of the same boys or girls.
This process also could not be applied before the approval of equal marriage. The unit of the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) made the corrections requested by the 14 women, and had an additional process pending until last week.
According to the registry authority, this type of registration can be made for children adopted abroad or conceived by one of the women, provided that there is no active paternity. In the case of male couples, they can only register children via adoption, and there are still no procedures of their kind.
