Madam, - The research repeatedly quoted by Professor Patricia Casey on the importance of fatherhood by Sarkadi et al. from the University of Uppsala in no way comments on the suitability of same-sex couples as parents. She is making a straw man argument. This research suggests that there is a trend for children to do better when their father (or a father-figure, such as a male partner of the mother) is involved in the child's upbringing, as opposed to when the mother is the only parent engaged in raising the child. There is no comparison with a child who is raised by the mother and a female partner. So this research tells us nothing about same-sex couples as parents, nor does it claim to.
Fathers, of course, can play a tremendous role in raising their children. But it is not some kind of mystical, metaphysical role. Their positive impact comes from their quality parenting. Dr Sarkadi's research at no point suggests that the father is the only one who can provide this quality parenting. In fact, she states that children with actively involved "father figures" (such as the mother's partner) can do just as well as children with actively involved biological fathers.
The overall body of research on same-sex parenting, having been reviewed critically by an expert committee of the American Psychological Association (APA), was found to show 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". However, Prof Casey suggests (March 11th) that this may reflect an "ideological bias" of the APA rather than being based on solid science.
Then what of the American Psychiatric Association, the representative organisation of America's mental health doctors? It too concluded, having critically reviewed the evidence, that the studies 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. Is it too following an ideological bias? And what of the same conclusions by the American Academy of Paediatrics - the world leaders in child health research and the organisation that has done more than any other to push issues of child welfare to the forefront in Western society. Is it wrong as well? Is it missing the crucial pieces of the puzzle that only Patricia Casey can see? Or could it be that it is Patricia Casey who is wrong?
Could it be that she, a patron of the conservative Catholic Iona Institute, is the one with the "ideological bias"? - Yours, etc,
IAN KELLEHER,
Beresford Street,
Dublin 7.