Book Review: Adoption from Care: International Perspectives on Children’s Rights, Family Preservation and State Intervention, edited by Tarja Pösö, Marit Skivenes and June Thoburn, Bristol: Policy Press, 2021, xiv + 272pp, GB£13.49, Hardback (and open access ebook), ISBN 978-1-4473-5103-0
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Abstract
Adoption from state care is one of the most controversial issues in child law, particularly where it is performed without parental consent. While recognising the complexity of the interests involved, the editors of this volume boldly assert ‘that the rights of the child often come second to parental rights’ in this context (p. 1), pessimistically observing that ‘there is little use of evidence to support the present balance between the different options’ for children’s care (p. 8). The editors also describe adoption from care as a ‘seemingly “minor” topic’, ostensibly on the basis that it has had ‘little exposure in the international child protection literature’ (p. 2). Somewhat less contentiously, they suggest that the topic of the volume:
…provides a unique and topical point to explore how children’s rights are practised and weighed against parents’ rights in present-day societies, and how governments and legal and welfare professionals balance those rights and discharge their duties of care to all who need their services, especially children following a decision that they cannot grow up in their parents’ care (pp. 2-3).
The book seeks ‘to look beyond the parents’ rights–children’s rights dichotomy as it explores the notions of responsibilities and outcomes’ (p. 9).