The Children and Family Bill must be amended to give preference to mothers and fathers, a new advocacy group. Mothers and Father’s Matter has said.

Responding to the Bill, published today, Mothers and Fathers Matter commended portions of the proposed legislation, such as improved guardianship rights for unmarried fathers, but took issue with those elements it believes undermine the central roles of mothers and fathers in the lives of children.

They held a photo-opportunity outside Leinster House (pictured above) to draw attention to the flaws in the Bill.

It said that the sections of the proposed law dealing with adoption and Assisted Human Reproduction, “undermine the special status of marriage in the Constitution” and “intentionally disrupt the natural ties between parents and children”.

Chairman of Mothers and Fathers Matter, Professor Ray Kinsella, pointed out that, if enacted in its current form, the Bill “would promote arrangements where children are intentionally denied either a mother or a father”.

According to the group, “the proposed legislation authorises adults to deprive a child of a connection to either his/her natural mother or natural father where those adults use donor sperm or a donor egg to have a child. Using donor gametes to have a child effectively commodifies children by allowing adults in effect to ‘order them’, even to particular specifications.

While the Bill has already been amended to prohibit anonymous egg and sperm donation, allowing for children to identify biological parents once they reach 18, Mothers and Fathers Matter pointed out that this arrangement “means they have no right to a relationship with their missing natural parent as they grow up and even when they reach 18, their natural parent may refuse them such a relationship”.

Further, and on the issue of adoption, the group argued that law in this area must ensure that, where possible, children should be placed with a married mother and father. “Only in exceptional circumstances should this preference, which common sense confirms is in the best interests of the child, be set aside.”

Mothers and Fathers Matter called for an immediate rethink on the Bill so as to account for natural ties and “to protect children’s right to a relationship with their natural parents which, in every case, will be their mother and their father”.

Speaking this week, Professor Kinsella added: “It is extraordinary that a Government, which professes to be pro-child, would seek to push legislation through the Dail that treats the natural tie, and by extension the complementarity of motherhood and fatherhood, in such a dismissive fashion.’’