Adoptive Kinship: A Modern Institution in Need of Reform - Softcover

Kirk, H. David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914539019 ISBN 13: 9780914539018

Publisher: Ben-Simon Pubns, 1985

Synopsis

Adoptive Kinship is a systematic analysis of the continuing controversy concerning the civil rights of adopted persons. Provides in-depth exploration of a variety of issues in adoption law and social policy, such as step-parent adoption, incest rules and child welfare activities. While identifying real troubles in adoption, it proposes humane, innovative answers.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The experience of adoption is far more common than is ordinarily thought. Conservative estimates hold that one out of five persons in North America is intimately linked to adoption--as adoptees, birthparents, adoptive parents, siblings, spoises, grandparents and as offspring.

In today's climate of controversy over the rights of adopted persons in North America, here finally is a book which brings solid facts to this area of deep emotion. In 1964 Kirk's highly readable book Shared Fate challenged the professional assumptions with research based on over 2,000 Canadian and American adoptive families. Now the author has provided an up-to-date review of the background for the current controversy concerning the civil rights of adopted persons. What he shows is that the difficulties peculiar to adoptive family life stem from well-meant but mistaken laws and administrative practices.

As in a detective story, Adoptive Kinship takes the reader through a gripping series of events. Eventually we discern the true sources of difficulty and also new directions for adoption, both as human relationship and as social institution.

About the Author:

H. David Kirk studied at Cornell University where he received his Ph.D. and where he laid the groundwork for his adoption research. In Canada he taught at McGill and the University of Waterloo. He has lectured and given workshops in Canada, the USA, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Greece and Israel. He is the recipient of awards from the Adoption Council of Canada, the North American Council on Adoptable Children and the Adoptive Families of America.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ben-Simon Pubns
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0914539019
• ISBN 13: 9780914539018
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 188