Example health and social care dissertation topic 5:

Gay marriage and Catholic fostering: The implications.

The issue of gay rights and particularly those relating to marriage is a contemporary contentious issue – as is the vigour with which the Catholic Church has denounced moves by the Coalition Government led by David Cameron to legalise same-sex marriages. Noting the role of Catholic adoption agencies, the dogma of faith, and the equality agenda, this dissertation seeks to evaluate the repercussions of the continued hostility of the Catholic Church to gay marriage on issues of adoption once same-sex marriages have become, as seems likely, a legislated reality. This is a cutting-edge area of research and, well written, should be readily publishable.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Hicks, S. (2005).’ Lesbian and gay foster care and adoption: A brief UK history’. Adoption & Fostering Journal, vol. 29(3), pp. 42-56.
• Hicks, S. (2006). ‘Maternal men – perverts and deviants? Making sense of gay men as foster carers and adopters’. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, vol. 2(1), pp. 93-114.
• Logan, J. and Sellick, C. (2007). ‘Lesbian and gay fostering and adoption in the United Kingdom: Prejudice, progress and the challenges of the present’. Social Work and Social Sciences Review-An International Journal of Applied, vol. 13(2), pp. 35-47.