The German coalition government has announced a draft bill to reform the country’s adoption laws in a way that reflects the “social reality” of modern family relationships.

Germany to reform adoption law

Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) has announced that the German government has drafted a bill to reform adoption laws.

Currently, if heterosexual or same-sex married couples adopt a child, both partners must become the legal parents of the child. Heterosexual and same-sex unmarried couples can also adopt, but in this case, only one partner is obliged to become the legal parent of an adopted child.

Under the new draft law, it will be possible for just one partner of a married or unmarried heterosexual or same-sex couple, to be the legal parent of an adopted child.

Head of the Berlin office for the Association of Foster and Adoptive Families in Germany, Carmen Thiele told Deutsche Welle that the reforms should reflect the reality of family life. “The reality of families today shows that marriage does not promise permanence, as was previously assumed in adoption law," Thiele said.

Children will be able to have two mums, but not two dads

If the proposed reforms are passed, children in Germany will also be able to have two legally recognised co-mothers from birth. 

At the moment, if one partner in a female same-sex couple has a biological child, the parent who doesn’t give birth must adopt the child as a stepchild to be officially recognised as a parent. The “step-parent’s” suitability must first be assessed, a procedure which has oft been criticised. In Germany, men in heterosexual couples aren't automatically recognised as a baby's father unless they are married to the birth mother. Otherwise, they must register themselves as the biological father if they want to be recognised as such.

Under the new law, both partners in the female same-sex couple would be legally and equally recognised as the parents from when the child is born.

"The hassle of stepchild adoptions for two-mother families must be brought to an end. After all, children from rainbow families have a right to two parents from birth regardless of their gender," the LSVD Association for Queer Diversity representative Patrick Dörr told Deutsche Welle.

But for now, these new rules will not be extended to children with two male parents. Since a child in Germany can only legally have two parents, and the birth mother must be registered as a parent, only one partner in a same-sex male partnership can be registered as the legal parent of an adopted or surrogate child, the other partner must adopt the child as a stepchild.

In April 2024 Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, ruled that biological parents must always maintain the right to have parental responsibility for their children. However, since the ruling defines biological parents as “a man and a woman who have conceived the child through sexual intercourse with their gametes if this woman has subsequently given birth to the child,” a grey area remains when it comes to children conceived via artificial insemination. 

Legislators at the Constitutional Court now have until June 30, 2025, to decide how this definition impacts German paternity law. Allowing children to have three legally recognised parents is a possible legislative path, a law that has already been adopted in Canada and some states of the US. 2016 saw the State Commission in the Netherlands make similar proposals, but no such law has been passed in an EU country so far.

Thumb image credit: Lopolo / Shutterstock.com