A Christian doctor has called on the Government to give doctors an "opt out" on moral grounds so that offering references to gay couples trying to adopt can be optional.

|PIC1|Dr John Lockley from Bedfordshire has argued that Christian medics should be given the option on grounds of conscience if they are asked to provide a reference to gay couples seeking to adopt, The Church of England Newspaper has reported.

The Bedfordshire GP, who is a medical adviser to a local adoption agency, says that according to the Equality Act, which comes into force in April, if, on grounds of Christian conscience a doctor refuses to provide a positive reference for a gay couple wanting to adopt, they can be taken to court and later might even be struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council.

The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship said that a majority of GPs have to conduct medical examinations on potential adoptive parents from time to time, and that this will undoubtedly cause a crisis of conscience among those many GPs who may have religious objections to gay adoption.

Dr Lockley was reported as saying: "I will be failing to comply with the Government's proposed SORs if I object to a homosexual couple as potential adoptive parents. I will also be subject to disciplinary action by the adoption agency under employment law.

"Worse, if I am found to have discriminated against the gay couple, and the claimants inform the General Medical Council, they will have to investigate and GPs who persistently refuse on conscience grounds to provide positive references for gay patients will risk being struck off the register."

The GP said that he does have a very good relationship with gay patients on his list. He said, however, that if he were asked to provide detailed information about their suitability to raise a child in a same-sex partnership, he is adamant that on grounds of Christian conscience he would find it difficult to do so.

Dr Lockley is now asking the 4,500 members of the Christian Medical Fellowship, the Catholic Doctors Society, as well as Jewish, Muslim and Sikh GPs to write to their MPs, to urge them to ensure the issue is clearly dealt with when they get a free vote on the SORs in March.