Dad’s call for adoption ‘overhaul’ backed by thousands

A father calling for reform of the 64-year-old Adoption Act has presented his 30,000-signature petition to Parliament.

Auckland man Christian Newman handed his petition calling for a ‘‘total overhaul’’ of the ‘‘outdated’’ and ‘‘complicated’’ act to MPs Louisa Wall, Tamati Coffey and Paul Eagle yesterday afternoon.

Newman and husband Mark Edwards – known online as Love From Your Dads – battled for more than three years to conceive and then adopt their son, Frankie.

The emotionally and financially ‘‘draining’’ process cost them more than $60,000. Newman is determined no other couples should face the same hurdles in starting a family.

The petition, which had 30,792 signatures as of 1pm yesterday, calls for the Government to make the adoption process clear and understandable.

The current law says intending parents – even if they are the biological parents of a baby born from surrogacy – are not named on a child’s birth certificate. Intending parents must formally adopt the child.

There is also no ability for surrogacy agreements to be enforced. If a surrogate decides to keep the child, the law favours the ‘‘natural parent’’ (the birth mother) even if they have no biological connection.

In a surrogacy situation, all parties involved – the intending parents, egg donor and partner, and surrogate and partner – have to undergo extensive counselling and ethics approval (from the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology – Ecart). Oranga Tamariki also has to sign off on whether the intending parents were fit to have children.

In his petition, Newman called for the Ecart approval to remove the need for the adoption process and reduce Oranga Tamariki’s involvement. It also asked for intending parents to be listed on a child’s birth certificate from birth.

‘‘[The law] needs a total overhaul,’’ Newman said.

Coffey thanked Newman for the petition, saying he heard ‘‘all 30,700 of you’’. He said there was already some work under way on the issue and the petition ‘‘adds weight to the cause’’.