Philippe+Malaurie+&+Hughes+Fulchiron


 * Brief summary:** Should France follow Canada's footsteps and allow a child to have two mothers or two fathers? Malaurie and Fulchiron argue no.


 * Homoparentalité:** Having one or two gay parents.

//1432 - Ambiguity of the term "homoparentalité"// The notion itself doesn't make sense - the homosexuality of a parent only concerns the adults, and not the child, and even less the juridical link between child and parents. The term confuses **parenté** (juridical link to the child) and **parentalité** (acting like a parent to the child). Examples of homoparentalité: (1) Homosexual parents raising a child born of one of the parents during a __past__ relationship. The partner plays the role of step-parent. (Parentalité) (2) Child born during the __current__ relationship, but with only one parent on the birth certificate (the biological mother, say). Again, the partner plays the role of step-parent. (Parentalité) (3) The partner adopts the other partner's child. (Parenté) (4) A child conceived together by the couple, with both on the birth certificate. (Parenté)

//1433 - Step-father, step mother:// This situation is evaluated subjectively, based on the best interests of the child. The step-father/mother can get custody rights, parental authority sharing, etc. In France, is it not better to focus on the best interests of the child than to recognize homoparentalité (that is, to let both parents in a gay couple be the legal parents of the child)?

//1434 - Unnatural filiation// Two cases: (1) a partner who would like to become the parent of his partner's child by adoption; (2) a gay couple who would both like to be the parents at birth. Case (2) is allowed in the Netherlands, Spain, Canada and Belgium. It asks society to rethink its system of //parenté//.

To allow a child to have two mothers or two fathers would mean that filiation would no longer represent the fundamental, biological human reality that all human beings are the product of one man and one woman. Filiation would simply be a juridical link between a child and adults playing the role of parents.

//1435 - Superior interest of the child?// It is not possible to reason by best interests of the child because, in most cases, the child is not yet born. The notion of best interests is too vague to be evaluated objectively. Some will say two heterosexual parents are better than two homosexual ones, while others will say two happy homosexual ones are better than one single heterosexual parent. The point is, this is comparing particular cases to particular cases. It is impossible to generalize the best interests of the child in this way.

//1436 - True and false discriminations// We must see past reasoning based on equality and discrimination. A difference in treatment is not discrimination if it is founded on objective and reasonable justifications.

//1437 - Child's interests vs. right to a child?// It is easy to believe today that every individual has the fundamental right to a child, a right that society must respect, if not grant. The child, center of the right, is objectified. Adoption is no longer about finding a family for a child, but about satisfying the desires of individual adults. We are very close in France to institutionalizing homosexual parents - is this not depriving a child of a fundamental element of humanity: the right to have the alliance of the masculine and the feminine in his parents?