Impact of ambiguous legal requirements on access to adoption: Analysis of institutional and social barriers

Abstract

The figure of adoption in Ecuador is configured as an important instrument that guarantees the right of children and adolescents to have a family; however, the problem related to normative ambiguities, as well as institutional and social barriers that hinder access, still persists today. The objective of this research is to analyze how the ambiguity of legal requirements is related to institutional and social barriers that restrict the rights of children and adolescents to have a home. The applied methodology follows a qualitative approach, descriptive and analytical in type, supported by documentary review, the hermeneutic method, and analysis of regulations, jurisprudence, and doctrinal studies. The results demonstrate that the lack of uniform and standardized criteria by current regulations, in aspects such as psychological, moral, and economic evaluation of applicants, as well as the absence of exact determination of procedural deadlines and discrimination against single-parent and same-sex parent families, undermine the principles of timeliness, legal certainty, and equality. Therefore, the research concludes that legal ambiguities and institutional barriers perpetually maintain discretion and discrimination in the adoption procedure, causing harm to the best interests of the child and their right to a family, which demands a comprehensive normative reform and the standardization of procedures to ensure fairer, faster, and more equitable processes