Adoption Law And Human Rights

In recent decades, there have been many changes to adoption law and practice, such as a sharp decline in the voluntary relinquishment of children, an increase in the number consigned to public care, and an abrupt decrease in those made available on an intercountry basis. Additionally, human rights are becoming more prominent, particularly in relation to issues such as: non-consensual adoption; the ethics of intercountry adoption; the eligibility of LGBT adopters; the impact of commercial surrogacy; and the sometimes conflicting rights of birth parents and adoptees when accessing agency birth records. In this book, O'Halloran presents a comparative analysis of the interaction between adoption law and human rights in common law (England and the US), civil law (France and Germany), and Asiatic traditions (Japan and China), while also developing a matrix of legal functions to assist in identifying and analysing areas of tension between human rights and adoption. This book is intended for a lawyer readership, whether professional, student or academic: researchers and postgraduate students in subjects such as social work, social policy and politics may also find it helpful.

This book analyses the social and legal functions of adoption in selected societies worldwide, and reviews the current global wave of adoption law reform. The author explores trends such as inter-country adoption, and examines similarities and differences in the experience of many nations. The book also provides a window for testing the presumption that within and between cultures there exists a common understanding of what is meant by adoption.

The Revised European Convention on the" Adoption of Children (RECAC) was introduced by the Council of Europe in 2008, in an effort to provide a modern framework for the adoption of children. It represents an international consensus on acceptable child adoption, reflecting the different views, legal diversity and common heritage of member states. This book provides an in-depth analysis and commentary on each of the 30 articles of the revised convention. It is a comprehensive work which explores the changes and developments that have taken place since the 1967 Convention on the Adoption of Children first emerged. It is a detailed, one-stop source for judges, social workers, legislatures and adoption practitioners on all aspects of the RECAC. This clear and incisive text is divided into three parts, commencing with an overview of the convention, followed by an examination of the general principles and concluding with the final clauses.

In recent decades, there have been many changes to adoption law and practice, such as a sharp decline in the voluntary relinquishment of children, an increase in the number consigned to public care, and an abrupt decrease in those made available on an intercountry basis. Additionally, human rights are becoming more prominent, particularly in relation to issues such as: non-consensual adoption; the ethics of intercountry adoption; the eligibility of LGBT adopters; the impact of commercial surrogacy; and the sometimes conflicting rights of birth parents and adoptees when accessing agency birth records. In this book, O’Halloran presents a comparative analysis of the interaction between adoption law and human rights in common law (England and the US), civil law (France and Germany), and Asiatic traditions (Japan and China), while also developing a matrix of legal functions to assist in identifying and analysing areas of tension between human rights and adoption. This book is intended for a lawyer readership, whether professional, student or academic: researchers and postgraduate students in subjects such as social work, social policy and politics may also find it helpful.

The Revised European Convention on the" Adoption of Children (RECAC) was introduced by the Council of Europe in 2008, in an effort to provide a modern framework for the adoption of children. It represents an international consensus on acceptable child adoption, reflecting the different views, legal diversity and common heritage of member states. This book provides an in-depth analysis and commentary on each of the 30 articles of the revised convention. It is a comprehensive work which explores the changes and developments that have taken place since the 1967 Convention on the Adoption of Children first emerged. It is a detailed, one-stop source for judges, social workers, legislatures and adoption practitioners on all aspects of the RECAC. This clear and incisive text is divided into three parts, commencing with an overview of the convention, followed by an examination of the general principles and concluding with the final clauses.

Bringing together scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this captivating and judicious Research Handbook provides diverse perspectives on the law and practice of adoption. It examines how adoption laws differ between countries and cultures, and the ongoing effects of adoption on the child, the birth parent(s), and the adoptive parent(s).

The incidence of foreign adoptions from the nations of South America, Eastern Europe and Asia has greatly increased as a result of the drastic decrease in the number of adoptable babies from western nations. This book, written by adoption workers and legal scholars from twelve 'sending' countries, presents, for the first time, details of those countries' adoption laws and procedures as well as international agreements governing foreign adoptions. Intercountry Adoptions constitutes an important and long-awaited reference book for potential adoptive couples, child care workers, legal experts and social service agencies.

Adoption activist Jean Paton (1908–2002) fought tirelessly to reform American adoption, dedicating her life to overcoming American society’s prejudices against adult adoptees and women who give birth out of wedlock. From the 1950s until the time of her death, Paton wrote widely and passionately about the adoption experience, corresponded with policymakers as well as individual adoptees, promoted the psychological well-being of adoptees, and facilitated reunions between adoptees and their birth parents. She also led the struggle to re-open adoption records, creating a national movement that continues to this day. While “open adoption” is often now the rule for adoptions within the United States, for those in earlier eras, adopted in secrecy, the records remain sealed; many adoptees live (and die) without vital information that should be a birthright, and birth parents suffer a similar deprivation. At this writing, only seven of fifty states have open records. (Kansas and Alaska have never closed theirs.) E. Wayne Carp’s masterful biography of Jean Paton brings this neglected civil-rights pioneer and her accomplishments into the light. Paton’s ceaseless activity created the preconditions for the explosive emergence of the adoption reform movement in the 1970s. She founded the Life History Study Center and Orphan Voyage and was also instrumental in forming two of the movement’s most vital organizations, Concerned United Birthparents and the American Adoption Congress. Her unflagging efforts over five decades helped reverse social workers’ harmful policy and practice concerning adoption and sealed adoption records and change lawmakers’ enactment of laws prejudicial to adult adoptees and birth mothers, struggles that continue to this day. Read more about Jean Paton at http://jeanpaton.com/

This book explores how children's rights are weighed against parents' rights in a range of countries, and examines how governments and legal and welfare professionals balance those rights following the decision that children cannot grow up in their parents' care, providing best practice evidence to help improve outcomes for all adopted children.

This book explains, compares and evaluates the social and legal functions of adoption within a range of selected jurisdictions and on an international basis. It updates and extends the second edition published by Springer in 2009. From a standpoint of the development of adoption in England & Wales and the changes currently taking place there, it considers the process as it has evolved in other countries. It identifies themes of commonality and difference in the experience of adoption in a common law context as compared and contrasted with that of other countries. It looks at adoption in France, Sweden and other civil law countries, as well as Japan and elsewhere in Asia, including a focus on Islamic adoption. It examines the experience of indigenous people in New Zealand and Australia, contrasting the highly regulated legal process of modern western society with the traditional practice of indigenous communities such as the Maori. A new chapter studies adoption in China. The book uses the international Conventions and associated ECtHR case law to benchmark developments in national law, policy and practice and to facilitate a cross-cultural comparative analysis.