In re the Adoption (Amendment) Bill 1987, 26 July 1988
Annual Review of Population Law 15: 138-139
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12289203 Document Number: 339896
The President of Ireland referred to the Supreme Court the question whether Section 3 of the Adoption (Amendment) Bill was repugnant to family rights contained in Articles 41 and 42 of the Constitution. Section 3 authorizes a child of parents who were married to each other to be adopted under exceptional circumstances, i.e., when the parents have totally failed their duty to their child, when that failure arises from "physical and moral" reasons and continues for more than a year prior to application, and when such failure constitutes abandonment. The Court found the Bill constitutional. It held that, under Articles 40.3 and 42.5 of the Constitution, the rights of the child within the family could in extraordinary circumstances be supplied by placing a child in an alternative family, and that the preconditions set forth in the Bill were sufficient to protect the constitutional guarantees afforded to the family. After the Supreme Court reached its decision, this Bill was signed into law as the Adoption (Amendment) Act 1988.