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Treating Adoptees as Persons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2025

Graeme Gregory
Graeme Gregory*
Affiliation:
Children's Bureau of Australia, and Victorian Adoption Agency
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Extract

The number of children placed for adoption in Australia (and in virtually all other countries) in the 1970's was infinitesimal compared with the number placed in the 1960's. Nevertheless, we enter the 1980's with adoption remaining a major subject for public scrutiny and discussion. Several factors contribute to this interest. Adoption in the one “welfare” activity that touches the lives of the “non-welfare” public, in that it is still seen (unrealistically) as the first alternative for childless couples wanting a family. The decrease in babies needing adoption reduces the number of couples who can look to adoption as a means of having a family and increases the public interest in this “rare commodity”. Two Australian Conferences on Adoption (1976 & 1978) brought together for the first time in this country the various parties involved in the adoption process, generating intense and ongoing examination, discussion and debate. The secrecy of the adoption process has been called into question, particularly by adult adoptees deprived of any information at all concerning their origins.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 5 , Issue 1-2 , Autumn/Winter 1980, pp. 41 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1. One author states that “one might say that adoption agencies are a system for re-distributing children from the poor to the middle classes”. See Schorr, A.L., “Poor Care for Poor Children — What Way Out” in Children and Decent People ed. Schorr, A.L. (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1975)Google Scholar
2. Picton, C. (ed.) Proceedings of First Australian Conference on Adoption, 1976 Picton, C. (ed.) Proceedings of Second Australian Conference on Adoption, 1978.Google Scholar
3. See Gregory, G.M. “No Child in Unadoptable” in No Child is Unadoptable — A Reader on Adoption of Children With Special Needs ed. Churchill, S.R., Carlson, B. & Nybell, L. (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications inc., 1979).Google Scholar
4. National Survey of Non Government Children's Homes and Foster Care — current project of the Children's Bureau of Australia. Report to be published 1980.Google Scholar
5. Fopp, P. “Adoption Legislation and Practice in Australia”, Australian Child and Family Welfare. Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter, 1979.Google Scholar
6. Fopp, P. “Adoption Legislation and Practice in Australia”, Australian Child and Family Welfare. Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter, 1979.Google Scholar
7. See, for instance, 1980 Amendments to the N.S.W. Adoption of Children Act.Google Scholar
8. Adoption Legislation Review Committee, Victoria, appointed by the Attorney General, and Minister for Community Welfare Services.Google Scholar
9. Federal Register, Vol. 45, No. 33/February 15, 1980/Notices: “Model State Adoption Act and Model State Adoption Procedures; Request for Comment” (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).Google Scholar
10. Federal Register, Vol. 45, No. 33/February 15, 1980/Notices: “Model State Adoption Act and Model State Adoption Procedures; Request for Comment” (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).Google Scholar
11. Federal Register, Vol. 45, No. 33/February 15, 1980/Notices: “Model State Adoption Act and Model State Adoption Procedures; Request for Comment” (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).Google Scholar