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Vegetarian spouses have been denied the adoption of a child
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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A married couple from the Greek city of Heraklion were denied the adoption of a child because the couple adhered to a vegetarian diet.
The couple plans to appeal the city's social services department's decision in court, the Herald Sun reports.
The agency's specialists suspected that the adoptive parents would restrict the child's diet in accordance with their beliefs. The head of the service, Spyros Epitropakis, said that the decision to refuse adoption was made following consultations with specialists from the medical faculty of the University of Crete. According to the doctors' conclusion, the child's full diet should include meat, fish and other animal products.
Epitropakis said the social services had to make sure the child would be treated properly. He also noted that the final decision on the adoption would be made by the court, which will hear the couple's appeal on March 16.
Antonis Kafatos, a pediatrician and nutritionist at the University of Crete, in turn called the authorities' refusal to adopt the child groundless. In his opinion, children need fish and other seafood, as well as milk. "However, if the adoptive parents are not going to feed the child in accordance with their diet, there should be no problems with adoption," Kafatos added.
The Greek authorities' refusal can be explained by serious concerns about the child's health. There are known cases of children raised in vegetarian families developing with disorders and even dying because of such a diet. In particular, in 2008, a Scottish girl whose parents did not give her meat or milk developed a severe form of rickets. In 2003, the daughter of Americans who practiced eating only raw food (raw food diet) died from malnutrition and severe vitamin deficiency. The five-month-old girl's weight at the time of her death was half the age norm.
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