Adoption prioritised based on race/culture - is this not a bit outdated?

[dowie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-40416237

A Sikh couple claim they were advised by an adoption agency not to apply because of their "cultural heritage".

Sandeep and Reena Mander said they were told by Adopt Berkshire that white British or European applicants would be given preference as only white children were in need.

It is not illegal for adoption agencies to prioritise on the basis of race.

A spokesman for Adopt Berkshire said: "We do not comment on ongoing court cases."

"They took the colour of our skin as the overriding reason not to progress with the application," Mr Mander said.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has also not responded to a request for a comment.

I'd have thought that these day's we'd surely be past this sort of thing? Why should it matter if a white couple adopt say a black baby etc..? In this case we've got a well spoken, middle class British Indian couple, they're apparently Sikh and their skin is a bit darker than the average white person (aside from those living in Essex).

Just judging at face value from a brief clip and throwing in a load of personal bias etc.. I think they seem like decent people - culturally, religion aside, they're hardly 'fresh off the boat' so to speak - if that is supposed to be a concern.

If religious culture is an issue then would a non religious white couple have trouble adopting a 'Christian' baby too? Surely a baby doesn't have a religion yet and the biological parent(s) ought to give up the right to influence that when adoption happens.

 

[dowie]

Indeed and from the article they seem like they ought to be suitable:

"Although my cultural background is Indian, I don't have any links with India, I'm a British person," Mr Mander said.

"We are a great couple, we're happily married for 10 years and financially stable.

"We have a five-bedroom house with four spare bedrooms.

"We thought we would be able to at least get to an application stage."

So culturally British, stable relationship, stable finances... oh but they've got slightly darker skin.

 

[dowie]

I feel for the Sikh couple involved, but they should understand, and have probably had explained to them, that the child comes first and not them.

Sorry, I mean I guess you've got a lot more experience in this area than me, but I don't quite understand why this is such a sensitive area? What are the issues in this case that you're trying to mitigate, if we're talking about a baby or toddler?

I can maybe understand a drastically different culture - I'm going to be rather crude here but if you'll excuse the slightly un-PC description the guy isn't exactly wearing a turban, has a middle class English accent, is a pretty light skinned British Indian and declares that they consider themselves to be British. I mean I see them as a fairly typical British middle class suburban couple! If they agreed to not raise the baby in any religion would that change things in your option or is the skin colour mismatch between them and the potential baby really a big issue?