Smokers cannot adopt under-fives

Published on Tue, 12 June 2007 6:06 pm

Smokers will be prohibited to adopt children younger than five in a trial to protect young people from health risks such as lung cancer and asthma.

The prohibition, approved by council chiefs in Portsmouth, Hants, will also signify that children who need an adoption are not located with parents more at risk of developing tobacco-related illnesses.

The decision will only apply to new candidatures and will extend the current limitation in the city which prohibits smokers from adopting children under the age of two.

But the move has come under fire from opposition councillors who consider the veto “demonises” smokers.

Some of them say it seems unjust to single smokers out as a group. Smoking appears to be a health risk and should be a negative point when you are considering someone for adoption, but it is silly to rule them out absolutely.

Neil Rafferty, a representative of a smokers' rights group, also attacked the ban and claimed the approach taken by the council was “curious and abusive”.

He said that it did not make them bad people just because they were smokers - they just had a bad habit.

At the same time, Eleanor Scott, the Liberal Democrat cabinet member for children, thinks that the prohibition would not signify that children missed out on being placed in good homes.

She said: “If children are already living with foster carers who smoke and want to adopt, we will let that happen, but do everything in our power to help them quit smoking”.

“This is not a blanket ban - it's blanket protection”.