tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/adoption-4239/articlesAdoption – The Conversation2024-03-22T11:54:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262672024-03-22T11:54:36Z2024-03-22T11:54:36ZScotland apologised in 2023 for historic forced adoptions – but this happened throughout the UK<p>“For the decades of pain that you have suffered, I offer today a sincere and heartfelt and unreserved apology. We were wrong.” One year ago, on March 22 2023, the then first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, stood up at Holyrood and said sorry for the Scottish government’s role in historic <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/scoping-study-historic-forced-adoption-final-report/pages/4/">forced adoptions</a>. </p>
<p>From the 1950s to the 1970s, thousands of young, unmarried women – <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19892887.scotlands-forced-adoption-scandal-time-apology-says-kirsty-strickland/">as many as 60,000</a> – were coerced into giving up their babies. “It is a level of injustice,” Sturgeon <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/apology-historical-adoption-practices-first-ministers-speech-22-march-2023/">said</a>, “which is hard now for us to comprehend.” </p>
<p>Rooted in conservative attitudes towards sex outside marriage, forced adoptions saw pregnant single women sent, mostly by local health authorities, to mother and baby homes run by religious organisations. After birth, the babies were adopted and the mothers returned home, prevented from speaking of what had happened. </p>
<p>This scandal did not just affect Scotland. It was common practice across the UK. In 2021 I submitted <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/40260/pdf/">written</a> and <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/3219/pdf/">oral</a> evidence to an inquiry into historic forced adoption covering England and Wales. My <a href="https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/205511/3/Forced_adoption_-_briefing_-_ML_27.09.23.pdf">recent research</a> highlights that the UK government’s <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/34106/documents/187682/default/">stated position</a> denying state involvement is wholly untenable, when faced with the historical record, much of which comes from its very own archives.</p>
<h2>Reckoning with the past</h2>
<p>Scotland’s reckoning with the past came from over a decade of campaigning by birth mothers and adult adoptees. They wanted the government to follow the Australian example, where on March 21 2012 the then prime minister, Julia Gillard, <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-19165">issued a formal public apology</a>, following a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/community_affairs/completed_inquiries/2010-13/commcontribformerforcedadoption/report/%7E/media/wopapub/senate/committee/clac_ctte/completed_inquiries/2010-13/comm_contrib_former_forced_adoption/report/report.ashx">major inquiry</a>. Scotland has not held an inquiry. But the government has, to date, been receptive to the voices of campaigners.</p>
<p>This same <a href="https://theconversation.com/irelands-shame-reforming-an-adoption-system-marked-by-secrecy-and-trauma-160897">economy of adoption</a> underpinned the mother and baby homes and <a href="https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/mother-and-baby-homes-and-magdalene-laundries-research-report">Magdalene Laundries</a> system in Northern Ireland, albeit from a Catholic perspective. Until <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8638/">direct rule</a> by the UK government was implemented in 1972, Northern Ireland had its own national government with administration and legislative responsibilities.</p>
<p>In 2021, the UK parliamentary joint committee on human rights announced an inquiry into historic forced adoptions in England and Wales. This, too, followed pressure from campaigners and the media, as well as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/03/catholic-church-apologises-for-role-in-forced-adoptions-over-30-year-period">apology the Catholic Church issued</a> in 2016 for the role it played. </p>
<p>The subsequent report estimated that from 1949 to 1976, in England and Wales around 185,000 unmarried mothers – as many as <a href="https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/205511/3/Forced_adoption_-_briefing_-_ML_27.09.23.pdf">215,000</a> – and their babies were affected. </p>
<p>The inquiry found the UK government was ultimately responsible for what it termed “the actions and omissions” which inflicted harm on so many young, vulnerable women and children. Actions included judgemental and cruel practices from a range of state-employed health, welfare and social service professionals. Omissions regarding a failure to protect young, unmarried women and ensure their human rights were upheld.</p>
<h2>State actions and omissions</h2>
<p>My research into UK governmental archives shows that forced adoption could not have happened in scope or scale without the state. The UK government transformed adoption from a cottage industry to one of mass production.</p>
<p>Before the second world war, mother and baby homes kept families together. The mothers trained for domestic service, which, crucially, enabled them to obtain work and have somewhere to live. Adoptions were less common, with around <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230582842">50,000 faciliated in 13 years</a>, from 1926 to 1939. </p>
<p>This changed in 1943, when the UK government <a href="https://movementforanadoptionapology.org/letter-from-dr-michael-lambert/">introduced subsidies</a> for mother and baby homes and registered adoption societies. New homes were opened, old ones expanded and more workers were appointed to handle the growing numbers of adoptions.</p>
<p>It briefly considered nationalising these institutions when the foundations of the welfare state were being laid in the late 1940s. However, the existing system was seen to be working well. Fundamentally, the issue was deemed a moral and spiritual one, more suited to religious oversight. Ultimately no changes were made; money flowed in and babies flowed out.</p>
<p>New adoption legislation, in 1949 and 1958, made the legal process easier and quicker. Most babies were between ten days and six weeks old when they were given new identities with adoptive families. The annual figure grew year-on-year, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/27/forced-adoption-mother-and-child-reunited">peaking in England at 16,164 in 1968</a>.</p>
<p>Secrecy – ensured by families – was integral to making adoption work. Adoptive families aimed to pass the child off biologically as their own and keep up appearances of respectability. This meant babies growing up in the stable, typically affluent family environment idealised by health, welfare and social professionals. For mothers, it meant they could return home and begin their lives again, untainted by the stigma of illegitimacy. </p>
<p>The UK government was well aware that mothers were being coerced – that their decision to give up their babies was not just a difficult moral dilemma. As early as 1951, the representative bodies for registered adoption societies highlighted that unmarried mothers had little agency to refuse.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AX5HcJFJmOo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The nascent welfare state was designed around male financial responsibility for their families. Its failure to adequately provide financial support and housing to unmarried mothers was intentional. </p>
<p>Officials deemed unmarried mothers to be <a href="https://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3561/1/Rowe_gender_and_the_politics.pdf">undeserving</a> compared with married women in conventional families. Their entitlements to financial support were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2004.tb00339.x">refused or diluted</a>. Those concerning housing were <a href="https://www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781526156761/9781526156761.00007.xml">subject to the discretion</a> of judgemental local and central government officials.</p>
<p>This would only change in 1974 with British judge Morris Finer’s landmark report on one-parent families. Women would have to wait another four years for their legal right to housing to be guaranteed, in 1977.</p>
<p>Demonstrating that historic forced adoptions were the product of central government policy, the 2021 inquiry recommended that the UK government <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/23076/documents/169043/default/">apologise</a>. </p>
<p>The latter’s <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/34106/documents/187682/default/">written response</a> in Februrary 2023 said: “The government agrees that the treatment of women and their children in adoption practices during this period was wrong and should not have happened. Whilst we do not think it is appropriate for a formal government apology to be given, since the state did not actively support these practices, we do wish to say we are sorry of behalf of society to all those affected.”</p>
<p>This belies the fact that the state was far from powerless. It enabled, financed and sustained forced adoption as its preferred policy. </p>
<p>On April 25 2023, as part of an <a href="https://www.gov.wales/people-affected-historic-adoption-practices-welcomed-senedd-welsh-government-apology">official apology</a> from the Welsh government, deputy minister for social services Julie Morgan offered her “deepest sympathy and regret to all affected” for enduring “such appalling historical practices”.</p>
<p>Importantly, Morgan’s statement recognised that forced adoption predated devolution. England had legal, political and administrative responsibility at that time. In not apologising, the UK government is denying justice to thousands of birth mothers – whose numbers tragically dwindle daily – and adult adoptees who may never know the women who gave birth to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Lambert has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and National Institute for Health Research.</span></em></p>In the 1940s, Britain’s nascent welfare state was designed around male financial responsibility for their families – unmarried mothers were intentionally disregarded.Michael Lambert, Research Fellow and Director of Widening Participation, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173562023-12-01T13:41:13Z2023-12-01T13:41:13ZNative American mothers whose children have been separated from them experience a raw and ongoing grief that has no end<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561972/original/file-20231127-29-vqtw0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2120%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Native American children are still disproportionately represented in the U.S. child welfare system. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sweet-interaction-between-a-grandmother-and-her-royalty-free-image/1401422729?phrase=native+american+birth+mothers&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">grandriver/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Native American mothers whose children were separated from them – either through child removal for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/30/us/native-american-boarding-schools.html">assimilation into residential boarding schools</a> or through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J285v05n03_04">coerced adoption</a> – experience the kind of grief no parent should ever feel. Yet theirs is a loss that is ongoing, with no sense of meaning or closure. </p>
<p>While some families have eventually been reunited, far too many languish in the child welfare system, where <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue-briefs/racial-disproportionality/">Native American children are overrepresented</a> as a result of discrimination and racial bias, structural racism and <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue-briefs/racial-disproportionality/">increased exposure to poverty</a>.</p>
<p>A panel I attended years ago in California was composed of three birth mothers representing three generations of Native American women who had lost a child to foster care or adoption. While each story was unique, they had one thing in common: a never-ending grief that had stayed with them long after they were separated from their children.</p>
<p>I still vividly recall that, with a lump in her throat, one of these mothers said, “I can still hear my baby crying.” Those mothers and their stories left a lasting impression on me and my colleagues, which was the catalyst for a new line of research for us. After listening to the panel, my collaborator Sandy White Hawk, a Sicangu Lakota elder of the <a href="https://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov">Rosebud Tribe in South Dakota</a>, responded, “We have to do something for our birth mothers. We cannot let them pass to the other side carrying this grief.” </p>
<p>I am an assistant professor of human sciences and I <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tmVn93oAAAAJ&hl=en">conduct research</a> in partnership with the <a href="https://www.wearecominghome.org">First Nations Repatriation Institute</a>. This work focuses on the health and well-being of Native American families that have experienced family separation by way of the foster care system and adoption. </p>
<p>For the past 10 years, we have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5820/aian.2402.2017.54">explored the outcomes</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104805">fostered and adopted children</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106062">and what happens</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.09.002">when families are reunified</a>.</p>
<h2>Foster care and adoption</h2>
<p>The adoption era refers to a period of time beginning in the 1950s with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/706771">Indian Adoption Project</a>, a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45391688">collaborative effort</a> between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America. It aimed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.37.1-2.0136">promote the adoption of Native American children into non-Native homes</a> and has been criticized as another attempt at forced assimilation into non-Native American culture and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/706771">destruction of Native American families</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/opa/online-press-release/adoptions-indian-children-increase">adoption era</a> continued until the enactment of the <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/diverse-populations/americanindian/icwa/">Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978</a>, which aimed to protect the best interests of Native American children by <a href="https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/dhs/icwa">establishing federal standards for their removal and placement</a>. An estimated 25% to 35% of Native American children were removed from their families prior to the <a href="http://www.narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/federal/lh.html">Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-affirms-congresss-power-over-indian-affairs-upholds-law-protecting-native-american-children-207888">The Indian Child Welfare Act</a> protects Indian children by <a href="https://narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/faq/placement.html#">prioritizing placement</a> with extended families, within the tribe or with an Indian family.</p>
<p>The child welfare system tracks when children leave the system <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.09.002">through reunification</a> with family of origin. Reunification can occur after aging out of foster care at age 18 or <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1077259ar">being adopted</a>.</p>
<p>To date, there is no way to consistently track how many fostered and adopted Native American children have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.09.019">reunited with their family of origin</a>. However, our team’s studies suggest that more than 80% of Native American people who were fostered or adopted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.09.002">eventually reunify</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tYMG13pKq4Y?wmode=transparent&start=125" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Indian Child Welfare Act, passed in 1978, was intended to combat the forced, unwarranted removal of Native American children from their families. Prior to the law, more than three-quarters of Indian families living on reservations lost a child to the foster care system.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Separated families</h2>
<p>The loss of a child to foster care, adoption or both is not uncommon in the United States. In 2021, approximately 606,031 children were involved in the foster care system. According to the latest data provided by the <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/report/afcars-report-29">Children’s Bureau</a>, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in September 2021 more than 391,000 children were residing in foster care and over 113,000 were waiting to be adopted. In addition, <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/report/afcars-report-29">more than 54,240 children</a> were adopted through public child welfare agencies in 2021.</p>
<p>Legislation known as the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/105/plaws/publ89/PLAW-105publ89.pdf">Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997</a> requires only that states report adoptions that occur in public child welfare agencies. Therefore, the statistics above do not account for the thousands of children who are adopted, often as infants, through private agencies outside of the child welfare system. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/adopted2010-19/">the total number of children adopted</a> each year in the U.S.</p>
<p>This is especially true for Native American children. <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue-briefs/racial-disproportionality/">Alarming numbers of Native American children</a> remain <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305554">involved in the child welfare system</a>. Allegations of abuse and neglect of Native children at the hands of their parents and other caregivers are twice as likely to be investigated, and Native American children are four times <a href="https://www.nicwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NICWA_11_2021-Disproportionality-Fact-Sheet.pdf">more likely to be placed out of the home</a> than white children.</p>
<p>In my view, the rights of Native American caregivers to raise their children have been violated by systematic practices of child removal that <a href="https://doi.org/10.7916/zjh1-g053">targeted Native American families</a>. Until recently, Native American mothers have been omitted from research on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12815">grief and loss of birth parents</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Native American grandfather sitting close to granddaughter in a bedroom, with a middle-aged woman and a child embracing in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562540/original/file-20231129-19-vfw7v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Systematic child removal and adoption has left generations of Native American families with unreconciled grief and loss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/faq/placement.html#">Alison Wright/Corbis Documentary via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ambiguous loss</h2>
<p>As a family therapist, I have sat with hundreds of families that were grieving the loss of a loved one, particularly a child lost to miscarriage, stillbirth and even death. Still, I was struck by the grief of Native American birth mothers. This grief was different. While it sounded like the grief that follows the death of a child, these children had not died. They were taken. They were alive but still lost.</p>
<p>While my colleagues and I have spoken with dozens of Native American birth mothers over the years, we interviewed eight of them who lost a child to adoption for what is called a phenomenological study. Phenomenology is used to explore the lived experiences of a group of people who experienced a similar event or phenomenon.</p>
<p>We wanted to understand the lived experiences of these mothers. We asked them how they became a birth mother, how their child came to be adopted and how this experience affected their health and well-being.</p>
<p>Our study found that these Native American birth mothers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12815">experienced ambiguous loss</a>, which is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2007.00444.x">loss that remains unverified</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12152">without resolution</a>. </p>
<p>In Native American culture, mothers are revered as “life givers.” The loss of a child to adoption stripped Native American birth mothers of this respected role and of their dignity.</p>
<p>Loss is often linked to death, but there are other types of losses. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/processing-and-grieving-an-ongoing-loss-such-as-a-child-with-a-devastating-injury-or-disability-does-not-fit-neatly-into-traditional-models-of-grief-205459">ambiguous loss</a>, there is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-009-0264-0">no closure or resolution</a>. Ambiguous loss is different from other kinds of loss. It is unfathomable, confusing and immobilizing.</p>
<p>There are two primary types of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12152">ambiguous loss</a>. One is a psychological absence with physical presence, such as when a loved one has dementia. Another is physical absence with psychological presence, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0308575915611516">loss of a child to the foster care or adoption system</a>. </p>
<h2>The downstream effects</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that many Native American birth mothers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12815">felt forced to surrender their children</a> to adoption because they were young and lacked resources. In many cases, they were unable to say goodbye or hold the baby. They felt ashamed and unworthy.</p>
<p>In addition to the unresolved grief, these mothers became <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-indians-forced-to-attend-boarding-schools-as-children-are-more-likely-to-be-in-poor-health-as-adults-194691">vulnerable to mental health</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12815">substance abuse problems</a>. </p>
<p>From my perspective, there are glaring and unanswered questions on the ethics and well-being of foster and adoption practices for children separated from Native American families. Native American adults who were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106441">fostered, adopted or both</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231188167">have also reported experiencing profound grief</a> that parallels the ambiguous loss felt by Native American birth mothers.</p>
<p>The healing of Native American birth mothers will be an ongoing and collective effort. One by one, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12815">Native American birth mothers are telling their stories</a>. These stories are gaining momentum. What happened to one woman happened to many others.</p>
<p><em>Credit to Sicangu Lakota elder Sandy White Hawk, founder and director of First Nations Repatriation Institute, whose vision guides this work. White Hawk is a senior author on studies that emerge from this work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley L. Landers collaborates with First Nations Repatriation Institute on research. The study referenced in this article received
receives funding from a Niles Research Grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech. Ashley is a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the National Council on Family Relations. </span></em></p>Native American families have endured generations of systematic child removal, but the grief, loss and trauma that birth mothers still experience have been largely overlooked.Ashley L. Landers, Assistant Professor of Human Sciences, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121752023-09-01T12:43:23Z2023-09-01T12:43:23Z‘The Blind Side’ lawsuit spotlights tricky areas of family law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545068/original/file-20230828-244119-badfi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C0%2C2878%2C1890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sean Tuohy, Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Touhy pose for a photo before a University of Mississippi game in 2008.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/michael-oher-of-the-ole-miss-rebels-stands-with-his-family-news-photo/83870434">Matthew Sharpe/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s the difference between adoption and conservatorship? Millions of dollars and the freedom to make your own choices, if you ask retired football player Michael Oher.</p>
<p>Oher, whose story was made into the 2009 movie “The Blind Side,” says he believed he <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/blind-side-michael-oher-tuohys-lawsuit-conservatorship-adoption-lies.html">signed papers to be adopted</a> by an affluent white couple, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, in 2004. But papers filed in court recently indicate Oher was in fact never adopted. Rather, he has been <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds">under a court-imposed conservatorship</a> all this time. Further, it is alleged that the <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds">arrangement allowed the Tuohys</a> to “gain financial advantages” by striking deals in Oher’s name.</p>
<p>The Tuohys’ attorneys have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nfl-michael-oher-tuohys-blind-side-movie-1bebe2ba9ee2ba60ac806dabab4f6d4c">pushed back</a>, saying that Oher had long known he wasn’t formally adopted and that the <a href="https://people.com/blind-side-sean-tuohy-speaks-out-about-michael-oher-legal-petition-7643431">conservatorship was necessary</a> for his college football aspirations. Their current attorney has also said he believes the long timeline for getting an adoption – compared with the <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/blind-side-controversy-why-the-tuohys-sought-a-conservatorship-over-adoption-for-michael-oher-141415218.html">relatively speedy</a> conservatorship process – played a role in their decision.</p>
<p>As the high-profile legal drama <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/the-blind-side-controversy-producers-respond-michael-oher-1235704029/">continues to unfold</a>, Leigh Anne Tuohy’s <a href="https://perma.cc/2DVP-GSBR">personal website</a> still describes Michael Oher as the couple’s “adopted son.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gvqj_Tk_kuM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/nrc8g/2915359">law school professor</a> who teaches trusts and estates as well as family law, I have been intrigued by the precise connections between the Tuohys and Oher. A conservatorship and an adoption are two very different legal proceedings, and the resulting relationships are entirely distinct. </p>
<h2>What is a conservatorship?</h2>
<p>Conservatorships are legal mechanisms to help people who can’t care for themselves or their finances – for example, due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/18/britney-spears-case-guardianship-laws">advanced dementia</a>. They’re typically <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009726455/britney-spears-conservatorship-how-thats-supposed-to-work">not for</a> people like Oher who have been signing their own contracts or writing their own books. The goal is to protect a vulnerable person’s well-being and their assets from being misused. Another recent conservatorship in the news, that of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-conservatorships-like-the-one-controlling-britney-spears-can-lead-to-abuse-164617">Britney Spears</a>, was also the subject of contentious legal proceedings, although the conservator in that case was her father. </p>
<p>Adoption is a different legal process that results in a new parent-child relationship. Parents have certain rights and responsibilities for their children, but once a child turns 18 – regardless of whether they are adopted – they are legal adults: They can make their own medical decisions, enter into their own contracts and get married without any parental involvement. People in conservatorships don’t typically have the same kind of freedom.</p>
<p>In Tennessee, where the Tuohys live, parents are not required to support their children once they <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-34/chapter-1/section-34-1-102/">graduate from high school</a>. But the existence of a parent-child relationship remains meaningful even after a child turns 18. For example, parents and children may have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/26/opinion/i-have-a-pretty-good-idea-why-michael-oher-is-angry.html">legal inheritance rights</a>, or children may be required to <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/sponsored/2022/08/28/the-parent-trap-filial-responsibility-laws-cause-financial-havoc-for-children/">pay for a parent’s necessities</a>.</p>
<p>The Tuohys say they were told that they <a href="https://people.com/blind-side-sean-tuohy-speaks-out-about-michael-oher-legal-petition-7643431">couldn’t adopt an adult</a>. But under Tennessee law, as in <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/parties.pdf">many other states</a>, adoption can take place at any age. To be sure, in Tennessee, anyone 14 or older <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-36-domestic-relations/tn-code-sect-36-1-117/">needs to consent for the adoption to take place</a>. So Oher would have had to agree – which he says he thought he did. </p>
<p>In addition, adoption <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-36-domestic-relations/tn-code-sect-36-1-117/">typically requires</a> <a href="https://www.findlaw.com/family/adoption/who-may-be-adopted.html">ending the rights of the birth parents</a>, which can be done either voluntarily or through a termination hearing. So even though Oher was over 18, the Tuohys could have adopted him – but that probably would have required ending the parental rights of Denise Oher, Michael Oher’s mother.</p>
<h2>Tuohys’ relationship to Oher</h2>
<p>The Tuohys didn’t file for adoption. Rather, they asked a court to appoint them Oher’s conservators, which it did.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-conservatorships-like-the-one-controlling-britney-spears-can-lead-to-abuse-164617">Only a court</a> can impose a conservatorship, and only a court can terminate one. A handful of states explicitly allow for a “<a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_aging/publications/bifocal/vol-42/vol--42-issue-2--november-december-2020-/voluntary-guardianships--a-primer-on-states-guidance/">voluntary</a>” conservatorship – that is, one to which the person subject to the conservatorship agrees. Others, including Tennessee, <a href="https://heinonline-org.proxy1.library.virginia.edu/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/umem36&id=499&collection=journals&index=journals/umem">seem to allow that</a> implicitly, providing for <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2010/title-34/chapter-1/34-1-107">special procedures</a> when the person joins the petition. </p>
<p>That appears to be what happened with Oher: He <a href="https://documents.shelbycountytn.gov/ProbateCourtDocuments/viewdoc.aspx?id=11">joined</a> in the request for a conservatorship, and so did his birth mother. At issue is whether he knew he was doing so.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4164229-michael-ohers-shockingly-unnecessary-conservatorship-exposes-court-failures/">Tennessee law</a> requires that the court find an individual “<a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2010/title-34/chapter-1/34-1-126">fully or partially disabled and … in need of assistance”</a> before issuing the order on conservatorship, there do not seem to have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/25/blind-side-controversy/">any claims</a> that Oher could not manage his own finances, health or living situation. The court apparently found that it was in Oher’s “<a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/michael-oher-conservatorship-unlike-legal-141712383.html#:%7E:text=Judge%20Robert%20Benham%20noted%20in,in%20Oher's%20%E2%80%9Cbest%20interest.%E2%80%9D">best interest</a>.” </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the Tuohys were apparently given authority to act on behalf of Oher. Although they were appointed “<a href="https://www.caregiver.org/resource/conservatorship-and-guardianship/">conservators of the person</a>,” which typically does not include control over finances, they were also given authority to approve <a href="https://documents.shelbycountytn.gov/ProbateCourtDocuments/viewdoc.aspx?id=11%20NOTE%20THIS%20LINK%20DOES%20NOT%20WORK%20-%20how%20about%20this?%20%20https://www.vulture.com/article/blind-side-michael-oher-conservatorship-lawsuit-explained.html%22%22">any contract that Oher wished to sign</a>. It’s unclear just what financial arrangements they undertook, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/25/blind-side-controversy/">other than those</a> that Oher alleges related to “The Blind Side” – he claims that a deal saw the Tuohys receive <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds">millions of dollars in royalties</a> from the film. An attorney for the Tuohys <a href="https://people.com/tuohy-family-claims-blind-side-subject-michael-oher-attempted-15-million-shakedown-7643878">strongly denied</a> exploiting Oher, describing the lawsuit as a “shakedown”; they are reportedly preparing a legal response.</p>
<h2>Little oversight</h2>
<p>Conservatorships – also called guardianships in some states – can be useful to help people who cannot make their own decisions. Even then, to protect the individual’s autonomy, states typically require that conservators be given the least amount of power possible. </p>
<p>But there is typically <a href="https://time.com/6075859/britney-spears-conservatorship-disability/">very little oversight</a> over conservatorships. Generally, a conservator is supposed to provide an annual report to the court. Under-resourced courts, however, may not be able to monitor the guardianship. It isn’t even clear how many conservatorships exist in the U.S., due to <a href="https://www.eldersandcourts.org/guardianship_conservatorship/general-information/basics/data">uneven record-keeping</a>.</p>
<p>There are alternatives to guardianships. In advance of any incapacity, an individual can designate a trusted person, known as an “agent,” to act on their behalf through advance medical directives or financial powers of attorney. Another option is supported decision-making, in which the individual retains decision-making authority but receives help <a href="https://thearctennesse.wpengine.com/supported-decision-making-sdm-lev3/">from other people</a>. These arrangements can be informal or <a href="https://supporteddecisionmaking.org/faq/">written as contracts</a>.</p>
<h2>Oher’s options</h2>
<p>Oher has already asked the court to compel the Tuohys to stop using his name and image, to provide an accounting of – and an end to – the conservatorship, and to return any money which should have been paid to Oher. He is seeking information about his school records and any <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2023/08/30/oher-seeks-blind-side-payment-information-in-conservatorship-battle/70717241007/">contracts related to the movie</a>. Outside of the conservatorship system, Oher could sue for damages in the event of any breach of fiduciary duty or fraud.</p>
<p>When all the smoke is cleared, maybe Oher can persuade Hollywood to make a sequel to “The Blind Side” about his struggle with the conservatorship system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Cahn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two very distinct legal processes are at issue in the Michael Oher case.Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2108872023-08-08T00:00:02Z2023-08-08T00:00:02Z‘Nobody’s child’ – despite a compelling case for reform, NZ’s adoption laws remain stuck in the past<p>It seems clear that <a href="https://www.justice.govt.nz/justice-sector-policy/key-initiatives/adoption-law-reform/">adoption law reform</a> won’t be a priority before the October general election. This will be bitterly disappointing for many New Zealanders.</p>
<p>Despite some significant progress, the Ministry of Justice has revised its timeline for delivering final proposals from the first half of this year to “in due course”. This means there is still no clear end in sight to what has already been a prolonged and frustrating process. </p>
<p>Most importantly, those touched by adoption – including extended families – continue to feel the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10926755.2022.2156012">enduring effects</a> of the antiquated and outmoded <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1955/0093/latest/whole.html">Adoption Act 1955</a>.</p>
<p>At the heart of the need for reform lies the “closed” form of adoption the law introduced. This has meant those adopted between 1955 and 1985 were prohibited from knowing their biological parents and family. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until the passing of the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1985/0127/latest/whole.html">Adult Adoption Information Act</a> in 1985 that adopted people (aged 20 or above) gained the right to seek identifying information about their biological parents.</p>
<p>But this still didn’t alter the fact that, regardless of when they were born, the Adoption Act itself legally extinguishes the relationship between an adopted person and their biological parents.</p>
<p>More than 100,000 adoption orders have been made since 1955, with a resulting stigma and secrecy that extend well beyond the adopted person themselves. Biological and adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, partners, children and grandchildren are all touched in some way. </p>
<p>Some estimates suggest <a href="https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0508/S00244/two-million-new-zealanders-affected-by-adoption.htm">upwards of two million</a> New Zealanders may have a direct link to adoption within their extended family. Law reform cannot come soon enough for many of them.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1552477504748658689"}"></div></p>
<h2>Legal fictions</h2>
<p>Legal adoption emerged in Aotearoa in the 1880s as a response to the growing problem of children born out of wedlock. Closed adoption went a step further, attempting to legitimise the illegitimate child through a kind of <a href="https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2022/07/05/the-law-that-failed-to-solve-the-plight-of--nobody-s-child-.html">legal fiction</a>. </p>
<p>By pronouncing the adopted person “as if born to” their married adoptive parents, it was thought they would be spared moral and social condemnation. </p>
<p>In the process, however, it created a legal legacy that contravenes the right to one’s birth origins and identity, something now taken as a given and asserted in both the United Nations’ <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">Convention for the Rights of the Child</a> and <a href="https://social.desa.un.org/issues/indigenous-peoples/united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples">Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/adoption-and-fostering-matching-children-to-parents-from-same-religion-and-ethnicity-makes-for-happier-families-124943">Adoption and fostering: matching children to parents from same religion and ethnicity makes for happier families</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These agreements assert the right to ongoing connections with biological parents and to cultural heritage. As a signatory, New Zealand is in breach of both due to its current adoption legislation.</p>
<p>It is widely agreed the Adoption Act is outdated – including by the Ministry of Justice. In 1985, legal academic <a href="http://www.nzlii.org/nz/journals/OtaLawRw/1985/2.html">Iain Johnston noted</a> that “the basic statutory concept was no longer appropriate for most situations”.</p>
<p>This included how Māori felt about the law. In 1988, the <a href="https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/archive/1988-puaoteatatu.pdf">Puao-te-ata-tu (Daybreak) report</a> for the Department of Social Welfare (as it was then) stated that closed adoption “is a totally alien concept, contrary to the laws of nature in Māori eyes”. </p>
<p>And in 2000, the <a href="https://www.lawcom.govt.nz/sites/default/files/projectAvailableFormats/NZLC%20R65.pdf">Law Commission found</a> the legal fiction of closed adoption was “a repugnant and unnecessary distortion of reality”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/irelands-shame-reforming-an-adoption-system-marked-by-secrecy-and-trauma-160897">Ireland's shame: reforming an adoption system marked by secrecy and trauma</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A history of inaction</h2>
<p>The current attempt at law reform is only one of several over the 68 years since the Adoption Act was first introduced. In the past 40 years there have been six formal reviews, two select committees, four cabinet committees and a draft bill. </p>
<p>There have also been several sponsored bills placed in the parliamentary ballot, a Human Rights claim, five reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child promising to review the law, and no fewer than ten ministers have pledged their commitment to reform.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the courts have been creating or “patching” law to fill some of the gaps where the Adoption Act conflicts with modern rights – for example, ruling that de facto couples (including same-sex couples) can jointly adopt a child. </p>
<p>Social work practice has also become more open, enabling birth parents, adoptive parents and the adopted child to be known to each other. And other legislation has dealt with related issues. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317233.html">Care of Children Act 2004</a>, for example, modernised guardianship but overlooked adoption. Surrogacy is being addressed separately in Labour MP Tamati Coffey’s member’s bill, which the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/491014/changes-to-surrogacy-laws-set-to-be-fast-tracked-after-government-adopts-bill">present government has adopted</a>.</p>
<p>And because of the need for further consultation and discussion, the Māori customary practice of <a href="https://www.govt.nz/browse/family-and-whanau/adoption-and-fostering/whangai/">whāngai</a> has been removed from the scope of the current law reform proposals. </p>
<p>Taken together, these changes have reduced the all-encompassing impact once envisaged for adoption law reform.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-her-real-mum-lesbian-parents-face-healthcare-challenges-175382">'We're her real mum': lesbian parents face healthcare challenges</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The adoption paradox</h2>
<p>There is also the simple fact that adoption law reform is only one of the Ministry of Justice’s many competing priorities, including efforts to reduce crime. Given this, the question must be asked whether the ministry is the right agency to lead adoption reform.</p>
<p>Ultimately, however, there is an unfortunate paradox at the centre of this issue. The emotional and polarising nature of adoption – as evidenced in the stories of those who have given children up, those who have adopted children, and those who have been adopted – is compelling, but also potentially politically unappetising. </p>
<p>Adoption reform pits the interests of some against others – typically, those who have been wronged by adoption, and those who want to adopt but fear reform will make the process even more difficult. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-my-parents-why-new-zealands-creaky-surrogacy-laws-are-overdue-for-major-reform-166745">Who are my parents? Why New Zealand’s 'creaky' surrogacy laws are overdue for major reform</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The risk of adverse public opinion or media attention may well act as a powerful political deterrent. As researcher Isla Mirren Doidge <a href="https://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/handle/10063/6305">concluded</a> in 2016, the very thing that makes law reform so necessary – the hurt and loss of closed adoption – may actually work against it. </p>
<p>For all these reasons it is hard to say what might add impetus to the drive for reform – let alone how the process will fare under a new government after October 14. </p>
<p>What is certain, however, is that this is now an intergenerational issue. Current adoptee activists have picked up the mantle of previous reform lobbyists, and the impacts of this outdated law now extend to their children, and their children’s children. </p>
<p>Adoption law reform has been nobody’s child for too long now. Whichever parties form the next government, they will have the power to make a critical change for the better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and has received funding from the Marsden fund for adoption/whāngai research. She is affiliated with the Crown Response Unit redress design work, responding to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, and has participated in adoption law reform processes as an adopted person.</span></em></p>Nearly everyone agrees the 68-year-old Adoption Act is not fit for purpose. So where is the political will for change, and how much longer do families touched by adoption have to wait?Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, Senior Lecturer Above the Bar, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078882023-06-15T23:44:31Z2023-06-15T23:44:31ZSupreme Court affirms Congress’s power over Indian affairs, upholds law protecting Native American children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532285/original/file-20230615-29-56m1hd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8256%2C5487&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wiping away tears, Nita Battise, vice chairperson of the tribal council of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, reacts to the Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that gives Native American families priority in adoptions and foster care placements of tribal children.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/alabama-coushatta-tribe-of-texas-tribal-council-vice-news-photo/1258712949">Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 law enacted to <a href="https://icwa.narf.org/about-icwa">protect Native American children</a> in the U.S. and strengthen their families, in a <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/21-376">June 15, 2023, ruling</a>. <a href="https://ictnews.org/news/supreme-court-affirms-icwa">Tribal leaders</a> praised the decision as upholding the basic constitutional principles governing the relationships among Native nations and the federal government.</p>
<p>Congress originally passed the <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/diverse-populations/americanindian/icwa/">Indian Child Welfare Act</a> in response to requests from tribal leaders, and other advocates for Native Americans, to stop state governments from removing an alarming number of Native children from their families. Before the law took effect, state social welfare agencies were removing <a href="https://www.narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/federal/lh/hr1386.pdf">between 25% and 35%</a> of all Native American children, and <a href="https://www.icwlc.org/wpsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/6a.-Supreme-Court-Mississippi-Band-of-Choctaw-Indians-v-Holyfield-1989.pdf">90% of those removed</a> were sent to be raised by non-Native families.</p>
<p>The Indian Child Welfare Act recognizes the government-to-government relationship Native American nations have with the United States. It covers certain child placements and sets uniform standards for state and tribal courts to follow when they decide American Indian child welfare cases. These standards include provisions that ensure that tribal governments are aware of and can have a say in the placement of Native American children. They aim to reduce the trauma of family and tribal separation by instructing courts to make active efforts to keep families together. </p>
<p>In 2017, the state of Texas and non-Natives seeking to adopt or foster Native American children challenged provisions of the law. They argued that the law exceeds Congress’ constitutional powers, impermissibly tells state officials what to do, and illegally discriminates against non-American Indians. </p>
<p>Writing for a 7-2 majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote, “<a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/599/21-376/#tab-opinion-4753196">the bottom line</a> is that we reject all of the petitioners’ challenges to the statute.”</p>
<p>As a result of the ruling, <a href="https://theconversation.com/native-american-childrens-protection-against-adoption-by-non-indian-families-is-before-the-supreme-court-190598">Native nations’ most valuable resource</a> – their children – will continue to gain the benefits of growing up knowing their own Indigenous cultures and communities.</p>
<h2>Court and Congress diverge</h2>
<p>As my <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-reversed-almost-200-years-of-us-law-and-tradition-upholding-tribal-sovereignty-in-its-latest-term-186264">research</a> has shown, Congress and the Supreme Court have increasingly diverged in how they view the laws that relate to Native American tribes. </p>
<p>The court has not consistently deferred to Congress but rather has increasingly claimed the power to be the final arbitrator of American Indian policy. In doing so, it has undermined congressional policies meant to foster tribal governance and protect tribal lands and bodies.</p>
<p>The petitioners in the current case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/21-376">Haaland v. Brackeen</a>, seized on this trend. They questioned Congress’ ability to enact laws affecting tribal governments and their citizens. They argued that Congress lacked the constitutional authority to enact the Indian Child Welfare Act.</p>
<p>From my perspective as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ASBSmrkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">expert in federal Native American law</a>, the court’s decision is significant because the court affirmed Congress’ constitutional power over American Indian affairs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man wearing a loincloth and glasses places a necklace over a child's head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe places regalia onto his son before a powwow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tribal-member-places-regalia-onto-his-son-before-the-start-news-photo/1241675829">Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Congress’ role in Native American affairs</h2>
<p>The majority of the justices responded to the petitioners’ arguments by reiterating the court’s longstanding characterization of Congress’ power over American Indian affairs as “plenary and exclusive.” </p>
<p>Writing for the majority, Barrett stated, “Congress’s power to legislate with respect to Indians is well-established and broad. Consistent with that breadth, we have not doubted Congress’s ability to legislate across a wide range of areas, including criminal law, domestic violence, employment, property, tax, and trade.”</p>
<p>Barrett relied on earlier cases to find that Congress’ power over American Indian affairs comes from and remains limited by the U.S. Constitution. “We reiterate that Congress’s authority to legislate with respect to Indians is not unbounded,” she wrote.</p>
<p>The majority concluded, “If there are arguments that [the act] exceeds Congress’s authority as our precedent stands today, petitioners do not make them.”</p>
<h2>Open questions remain</h2>
<p>The majority reaffirmed Congress’ broad authority over Native American affairs but left other questions unresolved.</p>
<p>The Texas attorney general and the other litigants claimed that the Indian Child Welfare Act discriminates against non-Native Americans by making it harder for them to adopt Native children. The law instructs courts to place children with their relatives – either Native or non-Native, someone in their tribe, or an American Indian family if possible. </p>
<p>The litigants said this preference for placement with an Native family is racial and violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution, which requires government policies to be racially neutral. Tribal nations counter that federal laws and previous court decisions have defined Native status as <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/417/535/">a political, not racial, designation</a>. The Court did not deal with this claim.</p>
<p>Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately to emphasize the seriousness of these claims. He stated, “[t]he equal protection issue remains undecided.”</p>
<p>Kavanaugh’s words may invite future challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act and to the political status of American Indians as citizens of tribal governments.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the court’s decision ensures that Native children will continue to experience the social and health benefits of being raised in their tribal cultures. </p>
<p>More importantly, the court’s decision acknowledges the vital, constitutional role that Congress plays in Native American affairs and defers to a congressional policy protective of Native nations and their people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Matoy Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Supreme Court ruling has upheld the right of Congress to pass laws about Native American tribes’ rights to self-government.Kirsten Matoy Carlson, Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994142023-05-01T03:30:49Z2023-05-01T03:30:49ZAbusive orphanages and forced adoption: delving into past child welfare practices that haunt the present<p>Recent <a href="https://nit.com.au/05-04-2023/5500/childrens-commission-urges-action-as-new-data-shows-exploitation-of-children-in-care">publicity</a> about the continuing abuse of children in out-of-home care may be a source of shame for Australians, but it does not come as a surprise. </p>
<p>A series of inquiries at both state and Commonwealth level over the last quarter century exposed such “care” as inherently abusive. The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/community_affairs/completed_inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/report/index">inquiries</a> also <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/">detailed</a> the lengths to which the governing institutions were prepared to go to deny this reality.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Ghosts of the Orphanage – Christine Kenneally (Hachette); Crazy Bastard – Abraham Maddison (Wakefield Press)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The United States has resisted the “age of inquiry” that has swept across much of the western world, leaving former orphanage residents to pursue their cases through the courts as individuals. </p>
<p>It is this struggle that forms the core of journalist Christine Kenneally’s latest book, <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/christine-kenneally/ghosts-of-the-orphanage">Ghosts of the Orphanage</a>. Her focus is on St Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont, where generations of children were under the control of untrained and often cruel nuns, and a series of paedophilic priests. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522516/original/file-20230424-26-f0506j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A reunion in 1994 provided the opportunity for former residents to share their memories of cruel and sometimes bizarre punishments. They engaged a lawyer and were able to show commonalities across these memories. But they were forced to pursue redress as individuals at a time when the community was disinclined to believe that the church would lie. Most settled out of court. </p>
<p>The reputation of the Catholic Church has since been damaged by clerical sexual abuse scandals across the world, which have raised awareness of the lengths to which the Church has been prepared to go to keep its secrets. </p>
<p>Kenneally’s book thus addresses a more sympathetic audience than survivors faced in the past. She has also uncovered material that was not available at the time of the original cases. This new evidence has allowed her to validate the survivors’ memories and document systematic failures, not only within St Joseph’s Orphanage, but in similar institutions within and beyond the United States. </p>
<p>The most concerning of the scandals Kenneally has uncovered involves the persistent rumours that some institutionalised children died as a result of their abuse and that their deaths were covered up: these children are the “ghosts of the orphanage”. </p>
<p>Similar rumours have circulated wherever children have been kept in closed institutions beyond the public gaze. And children did often disappear from such institutions. They were returned to their families or taken to hospitals or assigned alternative placements, without any explanation being offered to their fellow residents. </p>
<p>Children also died in care from illness, accident or neglect, and were buried without ceremony in the unmarked plots which, until recently, institutions maintained at local cemeteries. </p>
<p>Such deaths were rarely investigated. In the few cases where an allegation that the death was a result of abuse proceeded to trial, <a href="https://safeguardingchildren.acu.edu.au/research-and-resources/history-of-australian-inquiries-reviewing-institutions-providing-care-for-children">the sympathy of the courts</a> tended to lie with the orphanage authorities, rather than with the children.</p>
<p>In Australia, there are some notable historical examples of abuses that became public. In 1896, the Brisbane Courier reported that an Aboriginal child named Casey was beaten to death at Queensland’s Myora Mission by the matron, who was charged with manslaughter. In 1911, George Jones <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26341629">died from neglect</a> at Western Australia’s Swan Orphanage. In 1933, the Age reported that Rex Simpson <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203353990">died from unrecognised tetanus</a> at Victoria’s Seaside Garden Home for Boys. </p>
<p>Yet these publicised cases are rare exceptions in a environment in which institutional deaths were widely ignored. Surrounded by such silences, it is not surprising that rumours of unmarked graves abound among survivor communities, including in Australia. </p>
<p>Investigations around institutions such as <a href="http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/291">Bindoon</a> in Western Australia and <a href="https://www.ballaratorphanagechildrenshome.com/investigation-into-site.html">Ballarat Orphanage</a> have so far failed to validate such stories. But the shocking disclosures from Ireland’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/mass-grave-of-babies-and-children-found-at-tuam-orphanage-in-ireland">Tuam Mother and Babies Home</a>, and the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2022/05/statement-on-the-anniversary-of-locating-unmarked-graves-at-kamloops-residential-school.html">Canadian Residential Schools</a> have added credibility to the unofficial accounts. </p>
<p>Kenneally’s investigation of similar allegations from St Joseph’s adds fuel to the fire. Her account goes beyond accepted stories of abuse to examine deaths in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60464447">Tuam</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/23/nuns-charged-in-investigation-into-child-abuse-at-smyllum-park">Smyllum Park</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/28/world/children-remains-discovered-canada-kamloops-school/index.html">Kamloops</a>, and other institutions in Canada and the United States. She contrasts survivors’ memories with public accounts of orphanage operations, while acknowledging the distorting influence of trauma on memory and the perils of cross examination.</p>
<p>Her book exposes orphanages as hidden places which keep their secrets. Their residents effectively became citizens of a separate realm, irrespective of where the orphanage was located, part of an abusive system Kenneally describes as “an invisible archipelago”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522521/original/file-20230424-14-osk3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The promotion of adoption</h2>
<p>The promotion of adoption, particularly in the postwar era, would suggest that the negative aspects of orphanages were not unknown. Authorities assumed that single mothers would not be able to provide for their children, so they advanced a clean break theory. Adoption at birth, it was argued, would prevent children from “languishing” in orphanages when their mothers were forced to surrender them later in life. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1853">Crazy Bastard</a>, journalist and adoptee Derek Pedley, writing under his birth name Abraham Maddison, sets out to show that this assumption was fraught. He sees his life as broken by his forced adoption.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://adopteerightsaustralia.org.au/product/the-primal-wound-understanding-the-adopted-child/">primal wound theory</a> expounded by Nancy Verrier, Maddison views his adoption as the major explanation for the dysfunction that followed his discovery of his adopted status at 15. When a reunion with his mother – Joye Maddison – and her wider family failed due to his disruptive behaviour, exacerbated by his alcohol abuse and mental health issues, he interpreted this as a second abandonment. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523121/original/file-20230427-18-yjanau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joye Maddison in the early 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wakefield Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But a letter written by his mother at the time of his birth, but not given to Maddison until after her death, overturns this narrative of multiple abandonment. He also gains access to his mother’s diaries, which document her struggles over relinquishing her child and her continuing concern for his fate throughout the years when access to him was denied. </p>
<p>These documents lead Maddison to reevaluate their relationship. In Crazy Bastard, he reviews his life, interweaving his personal story with psychological insights, his recollections augmented by this mother’s writings and discussion with friends. He concludes that he and his mother were both victims. </p>
<p>Another crucial element in Maddison’s reevaluation is the evidence that emerged from the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/community_affairs/completed_inquiries/2010-13/commcontribformerforcedadoption/report/index">Senate Inquiry into Former Forced Adoptions</a>. Here Maddison was able to hear the voices of many women whose lives were also shaped, and harmed, by the practice of forced adoption. His own experiences were validated.</p>
<p>Crazy Bastard is the story of Maddison rebuilding his life. It is a valuable addition to the growing list of adoption memoirs that disrupt the happy-ever-after narrative on which the practice was based.</p>
<p>By locating his experiences within this wider narrative, Maddison has been able to move beyond the dysfunction that marred his past. Part of his rebuilding process has also involved a reunion with his father’s family – a reunion far less troubled than his original contact with his mother. </p>
<h2>Voices of survivors</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523122/original/file-20230427-18-e42c9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abraham Maddison, August 1974.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wakefield Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ghosts of the Orphanage and Crazy Bastard address child welfare practices of the past, but they have continuing relevance for the present. As the recently opened <a href="https://aomuseum.com.au/">Australian Orphanage Museum</a> shows us, the legacy of such practices lives on for the survivors, whose adult experiences have been shaped by the disruptions of their childhood. </p>
<p>We need to continue to listen to the voices of these survivors. Their voices provide a valuable counterbalance to politicians and experts who seek to impose simplistic solutions to the complex problems in child protection that continue to face society today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shurlee Swain receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Department of Social Services. </span></em></p>The voices of survivors are a valuable counterbalance to those who seek simplistic solutions to complex problems in child protection.Shurlee Swain, Professor of Humanities, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028722023-03-30T16:28:22Z2023-03-30T16:28:22ZSurrogacy shake up in UK would create uneven treatment for birth mothers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518518/original/file-20230330-1068-4tislc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C39%2C4322%2C2857&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Proposed UK surrogacy law changes raise concerns over unequal treatment of birth mothers</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-pregnant-woman-holding-ultrasound-scan-132280757">Phil Jones/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Surrogacy, where a woman agrees to carry and give birth to a child for another person or couple to raise, is <a href="https://brilliantbeginnings.co.uk/new-data-family-court-350-percent-growth-surrogacy/">growing in popularity</a>. There aren’t any comprehensive figures on the number of cases (partly because some surrogacy arrangements are <a href="https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/8-560-0205?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)">made informally</a>) but it’s clear it’s something more and more couples and individuals are considering.</p>
<p>In the UK, surrogacy laws go back to the 1980s – and are long overdue an update. This is why the Law Commission – which keeps the law under review and recommends reform where it’s needed – has proposed <a href="https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2023/03/3.-Surrogacy-draft-bill.pdf">changes to the law</a> that aim to make the process smoother and more secure for everyone involved. </p>
<p>Surrogacy laws vary from country to country, but <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/49">under the law currently in the UK</a>, the woman who gives birth to a child is always the legal parent at first. However, under the new surrogacy bill, couples or individuals using a surrogate would be the child’s legal parents right from the moment of birth. This change would put UK surrogacy law out of line with UK adoption laws in a concerning way.</p>
<p>Currently, all women who give birth in the UK have the same default rights to the child. This is regardless of whether they’re planning to give the child up for adoption or surrogacy – and whether they’ve used their own egg, a donor’s, or the would-be mother’s egg. But the new bill would create a disparity in how we treat birth mothers in surrogacy cases. </p>
<h2>Here’s why</h2>
<p>Under the current system, the so-called intending parents – the ones using a surrogate to have a baby – apply for what’s known as a parental order six weeks after the child’s birth. This transfers legal parenthood from the surrogate (and her husband or civil partner, if she has one) to the intended parents. </p>
<p>This process can be lengthy: on average it’s around six months, but it can take up to a year <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/surrogacy-laws-uk-criticism-babies-health-risk-b2233078.html">in some cases</a>. And during this time, the surrogate remains the legal mother – which can cause issues in medical emergencies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Couple receiving ultrasound picture from surrogate expectant mother." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518514/original/file-20230330-26-tkkbre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Surrogacy law changes in UK could deliver an uneven playing field for birth mothers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-married-couple-receiving-ultrasound-picture-1095110102">Olena Yakobchuk/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the proposed new system the need for a parental order is scrapped: the intending parents would have legal parental rights from the moment the child is born. If the surrogate changes her mind and wants to keep the baby, she would have up to six weeks after the birth to apply for a parental order herself. But the intending parents would still retain the legal status they gained when the child was born. </p>
<p>In such a case, the courts would then have to determine whether the intending parents should keep the child, or if the surrogate should be given parental status - so, the reverse of what the UK has at the moment. </p>
<h2>Adoption v surrogacy</h2>
<p>Pre-birth adoption contracts are illegal in the UK – and in fact, across most of the world. Even when a pregnant woman firmly intends to give up the child for adoption, she can only legally consent to this <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/38/section/52/enacted?view=plain">six weeks</a> after the birth – just like surrogates under the current law. </p>
<p>The six-week period is an <a href="https://rm.coe.int/1680084823">international standard</a> which is meant to make sure that the birth mother’s consent to adoption is freely given. This allows some time to recover from childbirth and conditions like post-partum depression, which might make the decision more difficult. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rop3QyKh90k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Birth parents have a right to change their minds about adoption and legally this trumps the <a href="https://www.todaysparent.com/family/our-long-road-to-adoption/">grief and disappointment</a> prospective adoptive parents feel at being told the birth mother has decided to keep the baby. But in contrast, the new surrogacy proposals could make it harder for surrogate mothers who no longer want to give up their baby.</p>
<p>It seems that <a href="https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2019/06/Surrogacy-consultation-paper.pdf">very few</a> surrogates change their mind and want to keep the child. The same is true in adoption, where only a <a href="https://helpinggrowfamilies.com/can-a-birth-mother-change-her-mind-we-find-out/">small percentage</a> of women change their minds after giving birth. But their right to do so is fundamentally protected in both instances - for now. Under the proposed changes this may not still be the case. </p>
<h2>‘It’s not the same’</h2>
<p>A major difference between adoption and surrogacy is that in surrogacy, one or both of the intending parents are related to the child genetically. But it doesn’t make sense from an ethical perspective to think that this should change the legal rights of the birth mother. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/legal-rights-for-egg-and-sperm-donors#:%7E:text=Egg%20donors,when%20using%20a%20donated%20egg.">as it currently stands</a> if you give birth to a child, you’re always considered the legal mother in UK law – even when using a donated egg. The new proposals would change this blanket rule to make an exception in the case of surrogacy. </p>
<p>But if childbirth is an important enough connection to keep these default rights in the case of adoption, then why not in surrogacy? And if people who sign up to adopt a child accept the risk that a pregnant woman might change her mind about keeping the baby, why not in surrogacy?</p>
<p>Turning parenthood into a contractual agreement may seem like a common-sense fix to surrogacy dilemmas. But if surrogacy is made to be more about contracts, it might lead to risky situations with surrogates treated unfairly. And ethically, surely all birth mothers should have the same legal protection, regardless of their plans after the baby is born.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teresa Baron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>UK surrogacy law reform: what you need to know about the proposed changes and how they could affect you.Teresa Baron, Nottingham Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2009952023-03-18T07:58:39Z2023-03-18T07:58:39ZAre Russian transfers of Ukrainian children to re-education and adoption facilities a form of genocide?<p>Throughout Russia’s war against Ukraine, there have been countless reports of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Now, there are also <a href="https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1mcw9lu5a">allegations of genocide</a> involving the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. </p>
<p>The International Criminal Court has just <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and">issued two arrest warrants</a> in connection with the transfer of Ukrainian children for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian commissioner for children’s rights. </p>
<p>While this is a significant legal milestone, the warrants might not necessarily lead to an arrest – due to a lack of enforcement mechanisms and the likely reluctance of the Russian state and potentially other states to cooperate.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1636747023490719745"}"></div></p>
<h2>Re-education and forced adoptions</h2>
<p>There have been many reports on the forced transfer of Ukrainian children, ranging in age from infants to teenagers, to various locations in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea. These transfers <a href="https://www.lemkininstitute.com/_files/ugd/9bc553_b7b957498faa441cbe88e21bf717bfe7.pdf">date back</a> to the beginning of February 2022; in the case of occupied Crimea, transfers of orphans and children without parental care commenced as early as 2014.</p>
<p>Russia is now believed to be operating a <a href="https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/apps/sites/#/home/pages/children-camps-1">large-scale, systematic network</a> of at least 40 “recreational” re-education camps for thousands of Ukrainian children. The primary purpose of most of these camps appears to consist of pro-Russian indoctrination and, in some instances, military training. </p>
<p>While Russia does not deny the evacuation of children or that they are now in Russia, the government <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/14/1156500561/russia-ukraine-children-deportation-possible-war-crime-report">claims</a> it is part of a humanitarian project for war-traumatised orphans. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1626320030299308034"}"></div></p>
<p>However, not all of these children are orphans. According to an investigation by <a href="https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/apps/sites/#/home/pages/children-camps-1">Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab</a>, children with living relatives in Ukraine have been “recruited” to attend camps in Russia for ostensible holidays. Consent from families is given either under duress or routinely violated.</p>
<p>Once the children are in Russia or Crimea, their communication with family members is either restricted or nonexistent. Most children have been unable to return home.</p>
<p>Troublingly, Putin’s “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/25/ukraine-war-children-deported-russia/11266200002/">patriotic patronage campaign</a>” is also strongly encouraging Russian families to adopt purported Ukrainian orphans. There have been legislative changes to expedite the adoption of Ukrainian children and <a href="https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/apps/sites/#/home/pages/children-camps-1">financial incentives</a> for Russian families who do this.</p>
<p>The exact number of Ukrainian children being sent to Russia is unclear. The Ukrainian government has officially identified <a href="https://childrenofwar.gov.ua/en/">16,221 deported children</a> as of early March. </p>
<p>Other estimates suggest the real number may be as high as <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/25/ukraine-war-children-deported-russia/11266200002/">400,000</a>. </p>
<p>Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently said the forced transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children constituted “<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-calls-transfer-of-children-to-russia-genocidal-crime/a-64835163">probably the largest forced deportation in modern history</a>” and “a genocidal crime”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1636752840583532546"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is the forced transfer of children an act of genocide?</h2>
<p>International law dictates what types of crimes constitute an act of genocide. These acts are exhaustively listed in the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml">Genocide Convention</a>, adopted in 1948. The legal definition of genocide has not changed in 75 years, and is accepted by and applicable to all states worldwide.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml">Article II of the Genocide Convention</a> lists the forcible transfer of children of a group to another group as one of the acts which may amount to genocide if it is done with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/civilians-are-being-killed-in-ukraine-so-why-is-investigating-war-crimes-so-difficult-178155">Civilians are being killed in Ukraine. So, why is investigating war crimes so difficult?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ukrainian children would be protected under this legal definition as a national group. The evidence, to date, also suggests the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia for the purposes of potentially “integrating”, or indoctrinating, them into pro-Russian culture has taken place. </p>
<p>While definite proof of this specialised intent is required, the removal of children from their families, homes and culture suggests the purpose of Russia’s “evacuation” of children may be to erase Ukraine’s identity. </p>
<p>Whether or not Russia succeeds is irrelevant; the attempt to commit genocide is also a crime. </p>
<p>Russia’s actions are comparable to the <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/chap_13.asp">Nazis’ “Germanisation program”</a> in the second world war, in which <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/children-during-the-holocaust">hundreds of Polish children</a> were transferred to Germany and subsequently adopted by German families.</p>
<p>In addition to being a potential act of genocide, the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia may also be a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law under the <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/assets/treaties/380-GC-IV-EN.pdf">Fourth Geneva Convention</a> and the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>, as well as a <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">crime against humanity</a>. </p>
<p>Russia is a party to all of these international instruments and is therefore legally obligated to adhere to them.</p>
<h2>Who is investigating this?</h2>
<p>To date, separate investigations into the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia are being carried out by:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/iicihr-ukraine/index">UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine</a>, whose <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiukraine/A_HRC_52_62_AUV_EN.pdf">report</a> will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on March 20 </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/11/ukraine-russias-unlawful-transfer-of-civilians-a-war-crime-and-likely-a-crime-against-humanity-new-report/">Amnesty International</a> </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/02/22/ysph-research-reveals-relocation-and-re-education-of-ukrainian-children/">Yale’s Humanitarian Research lab</a>, in collaboration with the US State Department</p></li>
<li><p>the Ukraine-based Regional Centre for Human Rights, in cooperation with the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The arrest warrants just issued by the International Criminal Court are the first related to alleged crimes committed during the Ukraine war. The judges of the responsible chambers agreed there were “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/17/vladimir-putin-arrest-warrant-ukraine-war-crimes">reasonable grounds</a>” to believe Putin and Lvova-Belova bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.</p>
<h2>Why evidence is crucial</h2>
<p>Successful criminal proceedings would require proof that the alleged perpetrators have committed genocide <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">beyond a reasonable doubt</a>. Conclusive evidence to this end will be crucial; the court will not be satisfied with a lesser standard.</p>
<p>The types of evidence that could support a prosecution could include everything from witness testimonies to satellite imagery or video recordings. Any evidence must meet international standards and protocols for criminal prosecutions. </p>
<p>Importantly, prosecutors would also have to demonstrate that not only did the transfer of Ukrainian children take place, but also that the perpetrators acted with the intent to destroy Ukrainians as a national group. </p>
<p>This evidence, in particular, will be difficult to collect – but not impossible with modern technology. This allows for the collection of evidence in real time and the preservation of otherwise perishable evidence through, for example, social media. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-am-a-ukrainian-american-political-scientist-and-this-is-what-the-past-year-of-war-has-taught-me-about-ukraine-russia-and-defiance-198128">I am a Ukrainian American political scientist, and this is what the past year of war has taught me about Ukraine, Russia and defiance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Genocide Convention says the forced transfer of children could constitute genocide if the intent was to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria, PhD Candidate and Academic in Law, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981142023-02-09T12:56:33Z2023-02-09T12:56:33ZDogs and cats can be expensive – five ways to save money on pet care as the cost of living rises<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507930/original/file-20230202-12962-vbbp5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C4408%2C2934&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some pet owners are facing heartbreaking choices due to rising prices.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/senior-man-dogs-cat-on-his-447964363">Budimir Jevtic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For anyone with a pet, you’ll know how much happiness they can bring to your life. Pets are part of the family – which is why, as someone who shares their life with a companion animal, it’s been so hard to hear about the thousands of people having to give up their pets due to the cost of living crisis.</p>
<p>Alongside rising energy prices, interest rates, rents and mortgages, the cost of caring for a dog has almost <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/cost-owning-dog-doubled-since-2019-research-2004212">doubled since 2019</a>. According to <a href="https://www.battersea.org.uk/about-us/press/press-releases/keeping-dog-costs-average-%C2%A32000-year">Battersea Dogs & Cats Home</a>, the average figure is now around £2,000 a year – the price of pet food, healthcare and insurance have all gone up. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/pet-advice/a-stabilisation-in-rehoming-of-pets-but-breeders-are-facing-more-challenging-times-than-pre-pandemic.html">Pets4Homes</a>, a pet classifieds site, recently found that 8% of pet owners are considering “giving up their pet”. The <a href="https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/news-dumped-newborn-puppies-hand-find-forever-home">RSPCA</a> has reported a 25% rise in the number of “abandonment incidents” from 2021 (10,519) to 2022 (13,159). Cats Protection has also seen an <a href="https://www.vettimes.co.uk/news/animal-charities-warning-of-unprecedented-help-demand/">18% rise</a> in cats abandoned by their owner, while Dogs Trust received a “record-breaking 50,000 handover enquiries” last year. </p>
<p>Of course, circumstances change. When COVID hit and people were locked down in their homes - bored, lonely and anxious – it seemed the ideal time for a new pet. In the UK alone, an estimated <a href="https://www.pfma.org.uk/news/pfma-releases-latest-pet-population-data#:%7E:text=Today%2C%20the%20Pet%20Food%20Manufacturers,of%20the%20pandemic%5Bii%5D.">3.2 million households</a> acquired a pet during the pandemic. Dogs were the most popular (in 57% of these households), with cats a close second (38%).</p>
<p>But with demand for pets now back down to pre-pandemic levels, smaller animal rescue centres are feeling the strain. <a href="https://apdawg.co.uk/">According to</a> the All-party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group, dog rescue in the UK is in a “state of crisis never seen before”.</p>
<p>Statistics support this. The most recent Pets4Homes <a href="https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/pet-advice/a-stabilisation-in-rehoming-of-pets-but-breeders-are-facing-more-challenging-times-than-pre-pandemic.html">UK Pet Industry Report</a> found that 42% of rescue centres were at 100% occupancy in 2022, compared with 22% in 2019. Of those centres, 26% reported “financial reasons” as the most common reason why people are giving up their pets – with <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pet-food-bank-rspca-cat-dog-blue-cross-b2270916.html">older people and middle-income earners</a> particularly affected.</p>
<p>If you’re struggling to provide for your pets, these money saving tips and support initiatives will hopefully be useful. </p>
<h2>1. Switch food</h2>
<p>Pet food has increased massively in price, so it’s worth shopping around and looking at cheaper brands. <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/pets/article/which-dog-food-brand/best-and-worst-dog-food-brands-aXxOj4c2O65d">Which?</a> advises that dry pet food is “usually the most economical”, buying in bulk can reduce monthly costs, and that switching brands could save around £80 a year for a medium dog and <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/pets/article/which-cat-food-brand/best-and-worst-cat-food-brands-aT8nf7v2E1kh">£100 a year for one cat</a>. </p>
<p>With dry and wet food, supermarket own-brands are generally good value for money. The RSPCA has an excellent <a href="https://www.rspca.org.uk/costofliving">cost of living advice hub</a>, and suggests mixing your pet’s regular food with a cheaper brand to make it stretch further. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Dog and cat eating from bowls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507920/original/file-20230202-7181-n7nhvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The prices of some dog and cat food ranges have risen by as much as 35%.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pet-eating-foot-dog-cat-eats-600630008">Gladskikh Tatiana/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Support VAT-free pet food</h2>
<p>A Dogs Trust-commissioned poll of owners in October 2022 revealed that almost a quarter (23%) say the rising cost of dog food is their biggest worry in terms of caring for their dog. This led the charity to call upon the government to <a href="https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/about-us/news/vat-pet-food">remove VAT from pet food</a>. This 20% cost reduction could make a big difference - and increased public support could help to make this happen. So why not write to <a href="https://members.parliament.uk/members/Commons">your local MP</a> to ask for their support?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three cats sitting on wooden platforms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C53%2C3964%2C2610&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507914/original/file-20230202-11868-7f4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cost of owning a cat is estimated at between £12,000 and £24,000 over a lifetime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/cats-hanging-out-on-a-wooden-bridge-7726315/">Pexels/Arina Krasnikova</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Visit a pet food bank</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.trusselltrust.org/">The Trussell Trust</a> supports a network of more than 1,200 independent food banks in the UK, each providing emergency food and support. Many include pet food as part of this. The <a href="https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/costofliving/foodbank">RSPCA Pet Food Bank project</a>, supported by the <a href="https://www.petsathomefoundation.co.uk/">Pets at Home Foundation</a> (a charity set up by the retailer Pets at Home), collects pet food donations and delivers them to food banks. </p>
<p>Recognising that “no one should have to choose between feeding themselves or their pets”, the animal welfare charity <a href="https://www.bluecross.org.uk/PetFoodBank">Blue Cross</a> is also running pet food banks and partnering with various organisations across the country. </p>
<p>It’s worth seeing if there’s one close to you as more and more are popping up – such as the <a href="https://petfoodbankservice.co.uk/">Pet Food Bank Service</a> in South Wales, which started in 2018 and has since provided more than 136,000 pet meals and items. All of these centres offer support and also welcome donations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman sitting on sofa with two white dogs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507917/original/file-20230202-7442-pj5mdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pets, especially dogs and cats, can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sitting-on-her-couch-with-her-dogs-8498519/">Pexels/Yaroslav Shuraev</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Consider pet insurance</h2>
<p>Pet insurance is still widely seen as a privilege. It’s an added expense but can potentially save thousands of pounds in veterinary fees. The <a href="https://www.abi.org.uk/news/news-articles/2022/05/pet-insurers-processed-a-record-2.4-million-a-day-in-2021/">Association of British Insurers</a> reported that the average premium dog policy stood at £274 per year in 2021, while the average claim was £848. There are different options available, including low-cost “accident-only” insurance for as little as <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/pet-insurance/pet-insurance/best-and-worst-pet-insurance-adlAD3Y24cYN">£5 a month</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman doing yoga with dog and cat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507918/original/file-20230202-12986-4kdfww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Insurance could save you from an unexpected – and potentially very high – vet bill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-doing-yoga-at-home-14751278/">Pexels/Anna Tarazevich</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Vet payment plans can help</h2>
<p>Paying for neutering or spaying and wormer, tick and flea treatments can save money in the long run by preventing future health conditions. Some vets offer monthly payment plans to spread the cost, while charities such as the <a href="https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/treat">PDSA</a> and <a href="https://www.bluecross.org.uk/veterinary">Blue Cross</a> provide low-cost or free veterinary treatment for eligible families. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cats.org.uk/what-we-do/neutering">Cats Protection</a> also offers financial assistance for neutering your cat, while <a href="https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/dog-school/discounted-dog-school">Dogs Trust</a> offers discounted dog behaviour training.</p>
<p>Ultimately, if possible, it’s important to keep people and their pets together during the cost of living crisis. As well as safeguarding the wellbeing of both humans and animals, this will help to reduce the financial burden on animal rescue centres, and the number of healthy, rehomeable animals being unnecessarily euthanised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Allen is founder of Pet Theft Reform and patron of the Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance (Sampa).</span></em></p>Money-saving tips for people with pets.Daniel Allen, Animal Geographer, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905982022-11-08T21:05:50Z2022-11-08T21:05:50ZNative American children’s protection against adoption by non-Indian families is before the Supreme Court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493560/original/file-20221104-13-jpychk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C21%2C2838%2C2057&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tehassi Hill, tribal chairman of the Oneida Nation, stands outside a U.S. appeals court in 2019 after arguments in a case that has made its way to the Supreme Court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndianChildWelfareActAppeal/9d1c73bb377d4777bda150b0f16e9728/photo">AP Photo/Kevin McGill</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During oral arguments about the constitutionality of a 1978 law enacted to <a href="https://icwa.narf.org/about-icwa">protect Native American children</a> in the U.S. and strengthen their families, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said:</p>
<p>“[T]he policy is for Congress to make. And Congress understood these … decisions as integral to the continued thriving of Indian communities. And Congress had a different view of the costs and benefits of how these decisions were being made. And that’s not something that we can second-guess, is it?” </p>
<p>Her question, during the session on Nov. 9, 2022, is significant, because it addresses the larger struggle going on in federal Indian law <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-reversed-almost-200-years-of-us-law-and-tradition-upholding-tribal-sovereignty-in-its-latest-term-186264">between the Supreme Court and Congress</a>. Over the past 50 years, the Supreme Court has increasingly claimed the power to be the final arbitrator of Indian policy.</p>
<p>A longstanding federal law, the <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/diverse-populations/americanindian/icwa/">Indian Child Welfare Act</a>, was originally passed by Congress in response to requests from tribal leaders and other advocates for Native Americans to stop states from removing Indian children from their families.</p>
<p>Now, in the case before the Supreme Court, non-Indians seeking to adopt or foster Indian children have challenged provisions of the law. The non-Indians say the law illegally discriminates against the Indian children based on their race and tells state officials what to do. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ASBSmrkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">federal Indian law scholar</a> and the mother to two Indian children, I know that Indian status is <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/417/535/">a political, not a racial, designation</a>.</p>
<p>The case threatens to reverse the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/10/11/40-years-ago-we-stopped-the-practice-of-separating-american-indian-families-lets-not-reverse-course/">social and health benefits</a> experienced by Native children when raised in their tribal cultures. It <a href="https://www.nativechildren.org">could also limit</a> Congress’ ability to enact laws affecting tribal governments and their citizens.</p>
<h2>A Native American child welfare crisis</h2>
<p>In the 1970s, Native American tribes sought help from Congress because many state governments were removing American Indian children from their families and communities and placing them in homes with white families. State social welfare agencies often permanently removed children from Native families <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/diverse-populations/americanindian/icwa/">without evidence of harm or neglect</a> because they did not understand Native cultural and child-rearing practices. At times, social workers even <a href="https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/nations-first-family-separation-policy-indian-child-welfare-act/32431">used force</a> to remove the children from their families.</p>
<p>This happened to <a href="https://www.narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/federal/lh/hr1386.pdf">between 25% and 35%</a> of all Native American children, and <a href="https://www.icwlc.org/wpsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/6a.-Supreme-Court-Mississippi-Band-of-Choctaw-Indians-v-Holyfield-1989.pdf">90% of those</a> removed were sent to be raised by non-Indian families. </p>
<p>In Minnesota, for instance, the state took Indian children from their families to be placed into foster care or for permanent adoption at <a href="https://www.narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/federal/lh/hr1386.pdf">five times the rate</a> they did non-Indian children. In <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mdhhs/Folder3/Folder9/Folder2/Folder109/Folder1/Folder209/History_of_ICWA.pdf">South Dakota and Montana</a>, Indian children were 13 times as likely to be placed in foster care than non-Indian children. And in Washington state, the adoption rate was 19 times as high and the foster care placement rate 10 times as high for Indian children than non-Indians.</p>
<p>As a result of these policies and practices, many Indian adults and children <a href="https://sct.narf.org/documents/haaland_v_brackeen/amicus_aap.pdf">suffer trauma</a> because of the loss of connections with their families and their cultures. This forced separation led many of them to <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/61694577">struggle with addiction and violence</a> throughout their lives.</p>
<p>Some Indian children spent years trying to <a href="https://lawrencekstimes.com/2022/09/18/adoptees-cultural-erasure-icwa/">recover their Indian identities</a> and reconnect with their tribal communities. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYMG13pKq4Y">Many others never made it home</a> to see their families or communities again.</p>
<p>It was this situation that the Indian Child Welfare Act aimed to address.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a loincloth and glasses places a necklace over a child's head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493888/original/file-20221107-17-2w41de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe places regalia onto his son before a powwow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tribal-member-places-regalia-onto-his-son-before-the-start-news-photo/1241675829">Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The law, explained</h2>
<p>The law first sets out the <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/how-native-american-tribes-and-the-us-government-relate-to-each-other/">government-to-government relationship</a> Native American nations have with the United States. Each is a sovereign nation dealing with the other’s government. As explained in the law, the United States government has a trust relationship, or obligation to protection Native lands, sovereignty, and peoples, based on treaties, statutes and court decisions.</p>
<p>In setting out a goal of reducing the number of children removed from their Native families and communities, the law “<a href="https://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/chapter21_icwa.htm">declares that it is the policy of this Nation</a> to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families,” and goes on to say that “there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their children.”</p>
<p>The law <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/25/1903">covers foster care placements</a>, preadoptive placements, termination of parental rights and adoptive placements, but not custody disputes between parents. It defines Indian children as citizens of or children eligible for enrollment as citizens in a tribal nation.</p>
<p>When an Indian child lives on a reservation, the law declares that <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/25/1911">tribal courts must decide</a> the child’s placement, including whether they are removed from their family in the first place. The tribal court can place the child with a non-Native relative or a non-Native family.</p>
<p>When an Indian child does not live on a reservation, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/25/1911">either the state or the tribal government</a> can decide the placement of the child. If the parent or tribe requests, the state courts must transfer child welfare cases to a tribal court, with a few limited exceptions.</p>
<p>The law sets uniform standards for courts to follow when they decide Indian child welfare cases. These standards include provisions that ensure that tribal governments are aware of and can have a say in the placement of Indian children. They aim to reduce the trauma of family and tribal separation by instructing courts to make active efforts <a href="https://sct.narf.org/documents/haaland_v_brackeen/amicus_apa.pdf">to keep families together</a>. These standards include recommending courts place children with their relatives – either Indian or non-Indian – someone in their tribe, or an Indian family if possible.</p>
<p>The preferences for family preservation and reunification pioneered in this law represent the gold standard for child welfare, according to experts in social work, psychology and family law. <a href="https://sct.narf.org/documents/haaland_v_brackeen/amicus_apa.pdf">They agree</a> that family reunification promotes the best outcomes for all children and that maintaining family and community connections best serve a child’s needs. Studies show that <a href="https://sct.narf.org/documents/haaland_v_brackeen/amicus_apa.pdf">Native children raised in Native homes</a> have higher rates of self-esteem and are less likely to suffer from depression or substance abuse or commit suicide.</p>
<h2>Not following the law</h2>
<p>In the 40-plus years since its enactment, however, states have regularly failed to follow the law. </p>
<p>For example, in 2015, a <a href="https://casetext.com/case/oglala-sioux-tribe-rosebud-sioux-tribe-v-van-hunnik-1/">federal judge ordered</a> the state of South Dakota to comply with the law after the state failed to provide parents with adequate notice and custody hearings.</p>
<p>Many state social workers and family court judges <a href="https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/nations-first-family-separation-policy-indian-child-welfare-act/32431">lack training</a> in and knowledge about the law. Some do not understand the harm Indian children experience when they are not raised in their culture. Others believe that the economic benefits that non-Indian parents can provide are in the best interests of the child and overlook the benefits Indian children gain from being raised within their cultures and communities.</p>
<p>The U.S. government does not keep records on <a href="https://www.casey.org/media/measuring-compliance-icwa.pdf">the law’s implementation</a> or monitor its compliance. The available data from <a href="https://www.casey.org/what-we-do/">the Casey Foundation</a>, which which advocates for the “well-being of children, families and the communities where they live,” shows states vary in their efforts to follow the law. A few have adopted state laws to require compliance, but others have yet to fully embrace the law. Uneven implementation of the law has undermined its ability to prevent family separation.</p>
<p>Recent studies show that Indian children remain overrepresented in the foster care system. A 2021 report found that Indian children disproportionately enter the child welfare system and are removed from their homes at <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/fcz5p">up to three times the rate</a> of white children. The <a href="https://www.nicwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Top-10-ICWA-Myths.pdf">National Indian Child Welfare Association</a> has similarly reported high rates of Native children in the foster care system. </p>
<p>The poor, often nonexistent, implementation combined with the recent constitutional challenges to the law suggests a lack of public awareness about the law and the harms that it was intended to remedy. That lack of understanding has allowed non-Natives to attack the law as unconstitutional. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether Indian children will continue to gain the benefits of growing up knowing their Native cultures and communities.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published Nov. 8, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Matoy Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A case before the Supreme Court will determine whether a federal law meant to protect Native American children from being forcibly removed from their families is constitutional.Kirsten Matoy Carlson, Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1876622022-09-28T20:45:27Z2022-09-28T20:45:27ZWill baby drop boxes from the Italian Renaissance become more common after Meloni win?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486622/original/file-20220926-21-psj4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=154%2C7%2C4675%2C3134&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Although pregnancy was celebrated in Renaissance paintings, like the 'Primavera' by Botticelli, the reality was quite different. Will Giorgia Meloni's far-right government reverse abortion rights in Italy?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Uffizi Gallery</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Italy, abortion has been legal since 1978. But now that Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-its-first-far-right-leader-since-wwii-mean-for-italy-190655">has won the national election</a> and the far-right form a majority in both the Italian Parliament and Senate, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/world/europe/giorgia-meloni-italy-women.html">access to abortion in Italy could face new restrictions</a>.</p>
<p>Anti-abortion supporters like Movimento per la Vita <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-abortion-access-erodes-riding-united-states-wave/">have been buoyed</a> by Meloni’s recent win as well as this summer’s United States Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade. </p>
<p>As an art historian, my work has always seemed safely detached from today’s reality. However, after these recent political shifts, it seems historical artifacts and practices are now painfully relevant.</p>
<h2>Revival from ages past</h2>
<p>In Piazza di San Remigio, a few streets away from the Arno river in Florence, Italy, there’s a rectangular, box-like contraption encased in the wall about the same size as a bank machine. It sits opposite the façade of the church that gives the piazza its name. Drawings of sweetly swaddled babies are visible inside the box behind its glass pane. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477926/original/file-20220805-7920-nph7d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A culla per la vita (baby box) in Piazza di San Remigio, Florence, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Wilkins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The contraption is a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/world/europe/28rome.html"><em>culla per la vita</em></a> or “cradle for life” where <a href="http://www.culleperlavita.it/dove_sono.php">desperate mothers can deposit unwanted infants</a> while retaining anonymity. Pressing a button opens the glass panel and the newborn can be placed inside the ventilated space on a receiving cloth. The partition closes automatically after ten seconds and cannot be reopened. </p>
<p>A sensor immediately notifies monitoring personnel and medical services who come to retrieve the infant.</p>
<p>This <em>culla per la vita</em> was installed in 2006 by the Florentine chapter of Movimento per la Vita, which aims to make abortions illegal in Italy. It is one of a growing national network of deposit points.</p>
<p>In the United States, there are over 100 baby boxes and, as in Italy, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/us/roe-safe-haven-laws-newborns.html?searchResultPosition=1">most are tied to anti-abortion, safe-haven movements</a>.</p>
<h2>No reproductive rights during the Renaissance</h2>
<p>The mechanized “baby box” or “baby hatch” is a revival of centuries-old cultural practices — first recorded as early as the 12th century and which particularly flourished during the Italian Renaissance. </p>
<p>In 15th and 16th-century Italy women had no reproductive rights. Without access to advanced medical care, women used all kinds of methods to end unwanted pregnancies, such as <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/abortion-remedies-medieval-catholic-nun/">time-honoured herbal abortifacients</a>, acidic substances, the insertion of foreign objects and folkloric practices.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether the pregnancy was wanted or not, the risk of death during childbirth was inescapable across all social classes. Although historical maternal mortality rates are hard to calculate, one estimate, using Florentine <em>Libri dei morti</em> (Books of the Dead), <a href="https://hdl-handle-net.ocadu.idm.oclc.org/2027/heb01278.0001.001">concludes that at least one out of five women of childbearing age died due to neonatal complications and trauma</a>. </p>
<p>It was not unheard of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375871_012">for women to write wills while pregnant</a>, especially when carrying their first child. The risk of complications was amplified by the pubescent age of many Renaissance brides. </p>
<h2>The ‘Primavera’ by Botticelli</h2>
<p>In Florence today, visitors flock to the city’s historic Uffizi galleries to experience the beauty of Botticelli’s <em>Primavera</em> and other Renaissance artworks. But whether viewers of the painting realize it or not, <em>Primavera</em> draws attention to stark inequalities for women. </p>
<p>The painting, some argue, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1358279">commemorates a marriage</a>, possibly that between Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici and Semiramide Appiani in 1482. At the far right of the panel, the god Zephyr pursues the terrified nymph Chloris. Raped by Zephyr, Chloris transforms into the goddess Flora, who holds a cluster of blossoms at her abdomen, emphasizing her fertility, and to the eyes of a new bride, foreshadowing her expected pregnancies.</p>
<p>While new mothers of the elite were served sweetmeats and delicacies and given lavishly painted <em>deschi di parto</em> (birth trays) to celebrate the delivery of a child, most Italian women of the time experienced harrowing deprivation.</p>
<h2>An early baby box</h2>
<p>In 1419, Florence’s Silk Guild commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to design the famed Ospedale degli Innocenti, which opened in 1445.</p>
<p>The building’s <em>loggia</em>, or portico, features semicircular arches made of soft grey <em>pietra serena</em>, ornamented with glazed terracotta roundels of swaddled infants by Andrea della Robbia inserted in 1487.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three arches, above the columns are terracotta figures of infants surrounded by a circular blue background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481337/original/file-20220826-1650-5xi5b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A few of the terracotta roundels in the portico of Brunelleschi’s Hospital of Innocents in Florence, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unwanted newborns were initially left in the loggia in the <em>pila</em> — an elevated basin or pillar — followed by the <em>finestra ferrata</em>, a small gated window, with dimensions that restricted the age of those accepted. Later, infants entered via <em>la ruota degli esposti</em> (“wheel of the exposed” or “foundling wheel”) — the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Visual-Cultures-of-Foundling-Care-in-Renaissance-Italy/Presciutti/p/book/9781138316171">preferred method</a> of surrender by the 16th century. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-a-newborn-was-found-in-a-recycling-bin-a-safe-haven-baby-hatch-may-save-lives-132851">After a newborn was found in a recycling bin, a safe haven baby hatch may save lives</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This cylindrical wooden device allowed the baby to be placed in an opening, rotated inwardly, and received inside. Infants often arrived wrapped with small talismans or a scrap with a scrawled name. Half a ribbon, a broken <a href="https://www.visitflorence.com/florence-museums/innocenti-museum.html">charm</a>, pendant, or coin, these marks of recognition were left with the child hoping for future reconciliation. The mother or relative kept the other half as proof of the long-lost familial relationship.</p>
<h2>Catholic doctrine barred burials</h2>
<p>Infant deaths were not just an earthly tragedy. Catholic doctrine forbade the baptism of deceased infants. Unbaptized infants who died quickly after birth, were officially <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11120678">barred from burial</a> in consecrated cemeteries and family chapels or tombs.</p>
<p>Midwives plunged unresponsive newborns into water or doused them with liquid in a desperate test for life. If revived, religious authorities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/146960531770434">allowed emergency baptisms by midwives or laypeople</a>.</p>
<p>Thousands of unwanted infants nevertheless survived their births. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the compassionate retrieval of abandoned infants may be a well-intentioned outcome to a highly complicated dilemma. However, we cannot forget the systemic torment of the mother by a world that does not provide adequate healthcare.</p>
<h2>Will abortion rights change under Meloni?</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A woman in a white suit waves." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=242%2C206%2C5748%2C4041&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486618/original/file-20220926-16-wvyhhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fratelli d'Italia (‘Brothers of Italy’) leader Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Sept. 25.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the legality of abortion many Italian women struggle to obtain one. Almost 70 per cent of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/world/europe/on-paper-italy-allows-abortions-but-few-doctors-will-perform-them.html">gynecologists</a> — 83 per cent in Italy’s southern regions — <a href="https://www.ilpost.it/2021/03/29/aborto-obiezione-coscienza-italia/">are conscientious objectors</a>.</p>
<p>Giorgia Meloni has said that abolishing Italy’s abortion law is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/22/abortion-rights-at-risk-in-region-led-by-party-of-italys-possible-next-pm">not on her agenda</a> but her party has been <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2022/09/15/news/meloni_aborto_legge_194_reazioni-365762519/?fbclid=IwAR2u8B44TEt_2ZMyTr2kG80B4f9SmaAr0NLsc57DQ_BPYuQmNIrUE2e4QKE">accused of impeding abortion access in some regions</a>.
For example, Marche’s regional council opposes abortions using pill RU 486 in clinics outside hospitals in contrast to Ministry of Health guidelines. </p>
<p>Meloni has said she wants women <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2022/09/15/news/meloni_aborto_legge_194_reazioni-365762519/?fbclid=IwAR2u8B44TEt_2ZMyTr2kG80B4f9SmaAr0NLsc57DQ_BPYuQmNIrUE2e4QKE">“to have the right to make a different choice” other than abortion</a>. The precise meaning of this statement is yet to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187662/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Coffey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The baby drop box is a revival of centuries-old cultural practices from the Italian Renaissance when reproductive rights were zero.Heather Coffey, Assistant Professor of Art History, OCAD UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753822022-02-14T11:33:44Z2022-02-14T11:33:44Z‘We’re her real mum’: lesbian parents face healthcare challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445103/original/file-20220208-17-16ods8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C51%2C5708%2C3776&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lgbt-couple-son-home-loving-lesbian-1933648517">JLco Julia Amaral / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last few decades, legal reform and evolving attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people have significantly changed <a href="https://apgl.fr/images/2013/pdf/etude-enfants-adoptes-2013.pdf">family demographics</a> in the UK. Prior to 2005, children in England <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents">could not be adopted</a> by people in a relationship who officially identified as being gay or lesbian. In 2021, <a href="https://newfamilysocial.org.uk/General-News/12137140">one in six children</a> placed for adoption in England were adopted by same-sex parents.</p>
<p>While it may be easier for same-sex couples to become adoptive parents, they and their children still face many barriers, particularly in the realm of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16866836/">healthcare</a>. As a researcher in children’s nursing, I am interested in how health services can be improved to help the most vulnerable. Adopted children are <a href="https://apgl.fr/images/2013/pdf/etude-enfants-adoptes-2013.pdf">more likely</a> than other children to access healthcare, often because of hereditary health issues and the long-term effects of abuse. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/10/e053710#ref-1">interviewed</a> six lesbian parents to learn about their experiences accessing healthcare for their adopted children in England. While this is a small sample size, the detailed experiences they shared are a valuable contribution to our understanding of the unique challenges faced by these families. These challenges can be different from those faced by heterosexual and biological families, fuelled by a combination of discrimination and lack of understanding by healthcare professionals. </p>
<p>Healthcare is often built <a href="https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/2672">on the assumption</a> that the people accessing services are heterosexual. This includes, for example, the assumptions made when doctors ask about a spouse, or the whereabouts of a patient’s father. </p>
<p>Lesbians have to “out” themselves in order to be recognised as a parent, and so their female partner can be brought into discussions about the childs’ healthcare. This can lead them to feeling unaccepted as coparents: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In an ideal world, people would just automatically read two women with a child or children as both their mums but we’re [as a society] nowhere near that point yet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Expectations of heterosexuality also mean that lesbian parents do not feel their family is understood or recognised by the healthcare system.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People expect one of us to be “the parent” … to have a more traditional family with “who plays mum and who plays dad”, and not be equal partners in parenting. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Understanding families</h2>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17272586/">Adopted children are more likely</a> than biological children to have additional healthcare needs, learning disabilities, developmental delay or mental health challenges. It is important that healthcare professionals have an understanding of the adoption process and parental responsibility of adopted children. As one interviewee told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had to go to the health check and she [healthcare professional] said “what about her real mum?” and it’s like … we’re her real mum.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In cases like this, the use of term “real” could create uncertainty or emotional distress for children. For a child who has endured plenty of uncertainty in their life, if their birth parent is described as “real” they may then ascribe “not real” or “pretend” to their adoptive parent. </p>
<p>Some parents also felt that their identity as lesbians and as adoptive parents led to being treated differently. This phenomenon, where different aspects of an individual’s identity combined leads to a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cqm8DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=.+Queer+theory+now.+London:+Red+Globe+Press,+2020.&ots=j6ZkoC-7io&sig=jersgN5V2yafiFoquyYEw0SHD6Q&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=.%20Queer%20theory%20now.%20London%3A%20Red%20Globe%20Press%2C%202020.&f=false">higher likelihood</a> of encountering prejudice and discrimination, is common in the LGBTQ+ community.</p>
<h2>Inclusive imagery and language</h2>
<p>The parents I spoke with suggested that, while same-sex parents are more accepted in society, there is a long way to go before their experiences are reflected in everyday life. One way this can be done is in the language and images used on forms, posters and brochures produced by the NHS, which commonly feature heterosexual couples. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had to register him [child] at reception [primary care setting] and it [the form] had the usual … mums name … dads name. So we crossed out dad and just put mum. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A doctor shown from the shoulders down, seated at a table and talking to a patient. The doctor has a stethoscope around his neck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445105/original/file-20220208-24-1iuz68d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some lesbian parents said some healthcare professionals did not understand adoptive families.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/doctor-examination-room-no-face-529266922">siro46 / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants also said they encountered health professionals who did not understand the process of adoption and the health needs of adopted children. This caused them to feel anxious and agitated, as they felt like their children’s treatment was delayed due to a lack of adoption competence.</p>
<p>Not all interactions were negative, and some parents described experiences that helped them feel validated as a family:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He said “There’s the two mums I’ve been looking for. Shall we walk and talk?” … It was very normal and he’s always been inclusive and great with the kids. I think he’s helped restore [the children’s] faith in healthcare. </p>
<p>There was this anaesthetist who was lovely … he never asked [who was her mum] and he obviously had read the notes or talked to somebody, or had just worked out the situation himself, acknowledging both of us all of the time. He explained stuff to us as if we were both parents, which it shouldn’t really be a novelty, but it was.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lesbian parents have to tread a complex path in healthcare, and sometimes feel they have to educate practitioners about being same-sex adoptive parents. While society is theoretically more inclusive than ever, lesbian parents and their adopted children won’t be fully “seen” until healthcare becomes a more accepting and safe space.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucille Kelsall-Knight does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are more same-sex parents than ever, but they still face unique challenges in accessing healthcare for their children.Lucille Kelsall-Knight, Lecturer in Children's Nursing, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1727142021-11-30T12:02:45Z2021-11-30T12:02:45ZJosephine Baker’s ‘Rainbow Tribe’ and the pursuit of universal brotherhood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434143/original/file-20211126-27-4fx722.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C91%2C1876%2C1355&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joséphine Baker, Jo Bouillon and their children, 1959.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Josephine_Baker_met_haar_10_kinderen_bezoekt_Rotterdam,_Bestanddeelnr_910-5757.jpg">Herbert Behrens/Anefo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among all the causes championed by Josephine Baker, her child advocacy work isn’t the one that is most remembered today. However, her actions helped to popularise international adoption.</p>
<p>On 30 November, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) will be inducted into France’s Panthéon. An <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/08/23/pantheonisation-de-josephine-baker">official statement</a> by the Élysée Palace describes her as “a member of the Resistance and tireless anti-racist activist […] involved in all the battles that unite righteous and willing citizens in France and across the world”. But of all <a href="https://www.lumni.fr/video/josephine-baker-une-artiste-au-service-de-la-france-libre">her life’s commitments</a>, her support for child advocacy and universal brotherhood is less frequently remembered. Nevertheless, her actions in this area influenced public opinion and helped popularise international adoption.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432247/original/file-20211116-27-1w5piyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After serving in the Resistance during WWII, Baker married conductor Jo Bouillon (1908-1984). Childless and in her forties, she set about building a family of children of all skin colours who would be raised in brotherhood and universalism.</p>
<p>In 1954, she came back from a tour in Japan with Akio and Teruya (the latter was renamed Janot in France). Later, she brought home Jari from Finland and Luis from Colombia. The couple subsequently adopted two young French children out of the welfare system, Jean-Claude and Moïse. Then, even with Bouillon feeling that another adoption would be madness, two more children were welcomed into the family in 1956. This time coming from war-torn Algeria, Brahim (who became Brian) was born to Berber parents and Marianne – the couple’s first daughter – was born to a French couple.</p>
<p>After her West Africa tour the following year, Baker brought back an Ivorian baby by the name of Koffi. Then in 1959 came the Venezuelan Mara, who was followed by Noël, so named after he was found in a crib in a Parisian street at Christmas time. Some years later, Stellina arrived, having been abandoned at birth in France by a Moroccan friend of Baker’s. She became the second daughter and the 12th child of the “Rainbow Tribe”.</p>
<p>Thanks to her fame, Baker could easily find go-betweens to help build her family at a time when the practice of “inter-country adoption” was not regulated on a global level. The forerunners of international adoption would often travel abroad in search of a child to adopt. This was the case for most of the 12 children, who were adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Bouillon under the French Family Code of 1939.</p>
<h2>A family in the limelight</h2>
<p>For Josephine Baker:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[There was] no point in adopting children of every colour to be kept away from everyone else! They must be made visible so that people can see that it is in fact possible; that children from different races, raised together as siblings, have no animosity; that racial hate is not natural. It’s an invention by mankind.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The children were all brought up in accordance with their heritage and the religions that Baker assigned to them. Janot was Buddhist, Jari Protestant, Koffi animist, Moïse Jewish, and so forth. Jo Bouillon wrote them a universal prayer of brotherhood:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“O Father, our Good God, grant […] that our brothers and sisters across the world may show greater love for each other, with the peace, understanding and tolerance that You inspire in us each day through the love that You offer us.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bouillon and Baker decided to turn their Château des Milandes estate into a tourist centre, as a living tribute to brotherhood between human beings. Along the roads of the Dordogne, signs called drivers to visit this “Village of the World”, the “Capital of Brotherhood”, which hosted 300,000 visitors annually in the late 1950s.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rEDPJg2ViD8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>To support the heavy costs of raising such a large family and maintaining the estate, Baker had to perform frequently, and her career soon became intertwined with family life. Baker’s song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyqHVSWAZW4">“Dans mon village”</a> (“In My Village”), set to music by Francis Lopez, was an immensely popular and touching ballad that alluded to her “little ones” (who increased in number with each subsequent recording) and called for universal brotherhood and peace. Alongside her husband, she also co-authored a children’s book, “The Rainbow Tribe” (1957) that was an ode to tolerance and openness toward others.</p>
<p>A 1961 television broadcast, <a href="https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/caf90021986/le-pere-noel-chez-josephine-baker">“Le Père Noël chez Joséphine”</a> (“Santa Comes to Josephine’s”), offered a snapshot of happy family life at Les Milandes. In interviews with French and international media, Baker always spoke of her family, her children, and the humanist philosophy that she practised every day.</p>
<p>There were frequent disputes between Baker and Bouillon, however, particularly concerning difficulties in managing the estate, which came close to being sold on a number of occasions. Josephine Baker relied on her image and her family’s popularity in the hopes of saving it, but categorically refused proposals to make a film about her children. “They are here to represent an ideal,” she said, “not to be turned into performing monkeys.”</p>
<p>In 1964, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp5xWhj7zJg">Brigitte Bardot spoke</a> at the end of a televised news programme, appealing to viewers to help Baker and her family. The call was answered by members of the French middle class, intellectuals (such as François Mauriac), political elites (such as Antoine Pinay) and, of course, artists (such as Line Renaud and Dalida). But their combined efforts failed to save the Les Milandes estate and Baker and her family had to leave in 1969.</p>
<h2>A unique experiment</h2>
<p>After a stint in Paris, thanks to the aid of the Princess of Monaco, the Rainbow Tribe settled at a villa in the Riviera town of Roquebrune. It was at this point that the relationship between the teens and their mother became strained, due to academic difficulties and boarding school stays, compounded by the double burden of coming from elsewhere and having a famous parent. None of them questioned their mother’s vision of universal brotherhood, but they clashed on issues of clothing, hair styles, and ongoing youth trends. Baker, meanwhile, feared that her children would be led astray, in particular by drugs.</p>
<p>When Baker passed away in 1975, her oldest children were in their 20s, some already married with children. Stellina, aged just eleven at the time, was the only one still living permanently with her mother. On the subject of her death, the artist had stated on a number of occasions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Once I’m gone, you have to carry on the idea that led me to bring you together.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432244/original/file-20211116-22-8fehc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Josephine Baker and her children, 1969.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Josephine_Baker_met_pleegkinderen_op_vakantie_in_Spanje,_Bestanddeelnr_922-6298.jpg">Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By bringing her experiment into the public eye, she hoped that others would follow suit, forming “rainbow tribes” far and wide with children of all colours, creeds and origins. In this regard, her experiment was something of a failure, since other such actions did not become widespread. Nevertheless, adoptions of foreign children saw a considerable increase in France during the 1960s.</p>
<p>Baker repeatedly mentioned the key reason for the strong bonds between her children. She maintained that children should be adopted very young and live together, without having their origins denied, and without individuality being an obstacle toward genuine kinship. Through her vision, the vertical roots formed between the adopted children and “the two Jos” <a href="https://www.canal-u.tv/video/universite_toulouse_ii_le_mirail/vivre_un_ideal_de_fraternite_universelle_la_tribu_arc_en_ciel_de_josephine_baker_yves_denechere.10368">spread outward between the 12 siblings</a>.</p>
<p>In adulthood, the rainbow children have recounted the golden years of their tribe, both in interviews and through their own writing. They have not, however, followed in their mother’s footsteps. Eight of the twelve have had children themselves, but none have adopted – a possibility that was never discussed between the siblings. But they lived the Josephine Baker adventure and are still living it today, as they will be actively involved in the <a href="https://enfance-jeunesse.fr/la-tribu-arc-en-ciel-de-josephine-baker-vivre-un-ideal-de-fraternite-universel/">tributes to her mother upon her induction into the Panthéon</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Enda Boorman for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en">Fast ForWord</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yves Denéchère ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Out of everything that Josephine Baker accomplished in her life, her child advocacy work is perhaps the most overlooked.Yves Denéchère, Professeur d'histoire contemporaine, Université d'AngersLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701652021-11-22T13:29:44Z2021-11-22T13:29:44ZAdoptees nationwide may soon gain access to their original birth certificates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432463/original/file-20211117-13-d02ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=191%2C383%2C2847%2C1578&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For adopted children, obtaining original birth certificates is a difficult process and includes searches in storage rooms such as this one in the Boston City Hall basement.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bostons-register-patricia-a-mcmahon-looks-through-boston-news-photo/672803520?adppopup=true">Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was adopted in Colorado in the late 1960s. At the age of 20, I was stricken with a serious illness that necessitated access to my medical history, including my birth family’s history. To my distress, I discovered I had no legal right to obtain my original birth certificate. </p>
<p>Americans generally take for granted their right to accurate information on their birth certificate. That is not the case for the nearly 5 million adoptees in this country. Once adopted, the courts replace the names of our birth parents with the names of our adoptive parents – and then seal the original record. Access is granted only through a court order. </p>
<p>As it is now, adopted children face a confusing web of different state laws and policies. And that is for only U.S.-born children. Foreign-born children are a completely different matter. </p>
<h2>Patchwork of restrictions</h2>
<p>Only 10 states in the country now offer U.S.-born adoptees and their birth parents unfettered access to original birth certificates: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.</p>
<p>But in 18 states, from Arizona to North Carolina to Wyoming, a court order is required to allow adoptees’ access to the originals. A compromise is offered in the remaining 23 states. In some, including Delaware, Iowa and Pennsylvania, the original birth certificate can be obtained only with the birth parents’ names redacted. Twelve other states have restrictions that only allow access for adoptees born in certain periods; for example, before 1968 or after 2021. </p>
<p>In still other states, including Indiana, Vermont and Washington, birth parents have the power to <a href="https://adopteerightslaw.com/united-states-obc/">veto an adoptee’s request for access</a>.</p>
<p>In Pennsylvania, an adopted person must achieve a high school diploma or GED to be eligible to access their birth record.</p>
<h2>Shifting culture</h2>
<p>The practice of amending birth certificates was originally employed in the 1940s to <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/united-states-statutes-at-large/oclc/1768474">keep birth parents from interfering</a> with the adoptive family of the child. </p>
<p>Yet child welfare officials recommended that birth records of adopted children should <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/united-states-statutes-at-large/oclc/1768474">“be seen by no one except the adopted person when of age or upon court order”</a>. Popular opinions suggested another reason: protecting the <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/08/12/with-push-from-adoptees-states-open-access-to-birth-records">privacy of biological parents</a>, particularly unwed mothers who faced condemnation for bearing a child outside of marriage.</p>
<p>American culture has shifted significantly during the 70 years since amended birth certificates became the norm in adoption. Single-parent families have become commonplace, and children born outside of marriage are no longer labeled “illegitimate.”</p>
<p>The question then is: Has the importance of sealing original birth
certificates and replacing them with amended ones been outstripped by time and cultural change? </p>
<p>Adoptees and other proponents of legislative changes allowing original birth certificate access argue that knowledge of one’s own identity is a basic human right.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in an office, where a clerk is helping them at a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432857/original/file-20211119-13-1iin0ex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joan Morgan, center, of Mt. Kisco, N.Y., and Joseph Pessolano, second from right, from Staten Island, file their pre-adoption birth certificate application on Jan. 15, 2020, in New York, a state that allows adopted adults unrestricted access to their original birth certificate without a court order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AdoptionBirthCertificates/dd6371bc6ad845799c56f1790f293f3f/photo?Query=birth%20certificate&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=483&currentItemNo=15">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response, many legislatures are changing their policies. Tennessee, Connecticut and Rhode Island recently enacted legislation favoring access. <a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/Billinfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0062&ga=112">Tennessee’s legislation,</a> enacted in April 2021, revokes the birth parents’ power to veto an adoptee’s right to contact them based on information on the original birth certificate. <a href="https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=HB06105&which_year=2021">Connecticut’s law</a>, enacted in July 2021, closes a loophole that restricted those born before 1983 from access. And <a href="http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText21/SenateText21/S0250A.pdf">Rhode Island’s law</a> reduced the age, from 25 to 18, at which an adoptee may obtain an original birth certificate. </p>
<p>Proposed legislation in Wisconsin and Massachusetts would provide unrestricted access. Wisconsin’s Senate <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2021/related/proposals/sb483">Bill 483</a> would allow adoptees 18 years or older access to their “impounded” birth certificate. <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/HD1543">Massachusetts’ HB 2294</a> would, if ratified, close a loophole that now restricts adoptees born between 1974 and 2008 from accessing their original birth certificates.</p>
<p>But for every step forward, there also are proposals restricting full access. <a href="https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/55leg/1R/bills/SB1831P.htm">Arizona</a> recently enacted a bill that excludes adoptees born between 1968 and 2022 from the right to their original birth certificate. And <a href="https://adopteerightslaw.com/iowa-redaction-bill-faq/">in May 2021, Iowa</a> allowed birth parents to redact their names from original birth certificates. </p>
<h2>Intermediary services</h2>
<p>To bridge the gap, <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/infoaccessap.pdf">state-run confidential intermediary services</a> now exist in many states. The services enable adoptees and their biological family members to search for one another. If the sought-after person does not wish to have contact with the seeker, all records are resealed and no information is given. Fees vary from state to state, and many are prohibitively expensive. <a href="https://coirs.net/confidential-intermediary-fees/">Colorado’s is $875</a>, for example.</p>
<p>The expense is not the only downside. <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/most-american-adoptees-cant-access-their-birth-certificates-that-could-be-about-to-change/">Intermediary services are often cited by those opposed to legislation allowing access to original birth certificates</a>. They argue that the originals are not needed because the intermediaries offer a legal alternative to find biological relatives.</p>
<p>Another argument against unhindered access is that <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/adult-adoptee-access-to-original-birth-certificates.aspx">birth families who believed they would remain anonymous </a> would receive unwanted contact from those placed in adoption. </p>
<p>But there is evidence to the contrary. In states offering unrestricted access such as <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/08/12/with-push-from-adoptees-states-open-access-to-birth-records">New Hampshire</a>, less than 1 percent – 0.74 percent – of birth parents have indicated they didn’t want to be contacted by their relinquished children.</p>
<p>Gregory Luce, founder of <a href="https://adopteerightslaw.com/">Adoptee Rights Law Center</a>, says there is a trend favoring unrestricted rights, especially among younger legislators. </p>
<p>“They really don’t see it as a big issue,” Luce explained in an email exchange I had with him recently, “particularly since DNA and other tools that have developed over the years can ‘out’ birth parents much more publicly than the release of a person’s own birth record.” </p>
<p>In 2016, when Colorado amended its laws to allow adopted people access to their original birth certificates, I was nearly 50 years old. Thirty years ago, shortly after my medical scare, I began what became a long and circuitous search for my birth parents. After a decade of searching, I finally found them and had a happy reunion. </p>
<p>I had given up on the idea of ever holding my birth certificate – the one with their names on it – in my hands. A month ago, I became aware of Colorado’s legislative change and sent in the necessary paperwork to get my birth certificate.</p>
<p>I am anxiously awaiting its arrival. I can’t wait to show it to my birth parents. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation’s politics, science or religion articles each week.</em><a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-best">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Ross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Adopted children face a slew of legal challenges in trying to obtain their original birth certificates. Lawmakers across the country are increasingly granting more access as a basic human right.Andrea Ross, Lecturer in the University Writing Program, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1667452021-09-09T02:01:14Z2021-09-09T02:01:14ZWho are my parents? Why New Zealand’s ‘creaky’ surrogacy laws are overdue for major reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419926/original/file-20210908-7579-17e7s1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C4341%2C2903&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children born through surrogacy are much wanted and much loved. Under the current law, however, they can spend at least their first months of life in a kind of legal limbo. </p>
<p>This is because of the way several separate pieces of legislation cover the two types of surrogacy: gestational, where the child is not genetically related to the surrogate parent; and traditional, where the child is genetically related. </p>
<p>The resulting legal confusion is now the subject of a <a href="https://www.lawcom.govt.nz/our-projects/review-of-surrogacy">Law Commission review</a>, which proposes significant reform based on the guiding principle that “the best interests of the child should be paramount”.</p>
<p>Right now, that cannot be said of the way surrogate children and their parents are treated under law that even judges have described as “creaky” and “inadequate”.</p>
<h2>Who are the legal parents?</h2>
<p>Surrogacy is regulated through the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0092/latest/whole.html">Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act</a>, which prohibits <a href="https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/law/research/cccl/publications/books/perspectives-on-commercial-surrogacy-in-new-zealand-ethics-law-policy-and-rights.html">commercial surrogacy</a> and requires gestational surrogacy to be approved by an <a href="https://ecart.health.govt.nz/">ethics committee</a>. </p>
<p>But that act is silent on the legal parentage of the child, leaving this to be determined by the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1969/0018/latest/whole.html">Status of Children Act</a>. Effectively, the woman who gives birth and her partner (if the partner consents to the assisted reproduction) are the child’s legal parents. </p>
<p>This means the intended parents have no legal rights to the child – even if they are the genetic parents – until they adopt the child under the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1955/0093/latest/DLM292661.html">Adoption Act</a>. </p>
<p>But legal parentage is important. Legal parents transfer citizenship to their children and act on their behalf, such as giving consent to medical treatment or travel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Newborn baby in mothers arms" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419929/original/file-20210908-27-fk804e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uncertainty about legal parentage affects everyone involved, including the child.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Costly, burdensome and time-consuming</h2>
<p>All children, independently of their method of birth, have the right to an identity, citizenship, health, education and to be cared for by their parents. However, the uncertainty regarding the legal parentage of surrogate-born children compromises those rights and the ability of intended parents to take care of their children. </p>
<p>The best interests of the child are not served by imposing on intended parents the duty to adopt their children from surrogate parents who never meant to be the legal parents or raise the children. </p>
<p>In particular, when one or both intended parents are the child’s biological parents, adoption distorts the child’s identity forever, engendering an unnecessary legal fiction.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-women-are-surrogate-mothers-is-that-work-81381">When women are surrogate mothers: Is that work?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is confusing for <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_91537/petition-of-christian-john-newman-update-the-adoption">intended parents</a>, <a href="https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/business-and-law/law-documents/EmpiricaResearchFinalPart1.pdf">lawyers</a> and <a href="https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/business-and-law/law-documents/EmpiricaResearchFinalPart3.pdf">members of the public</a>, particularly where the child is genetically related to the intended parents. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the adoption process is seen as costly, burdensome and time-consuming because <a href="https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/business-and-law/law-documents/EmpiricaResearchFinalPart2.pdf">lawyers and judges</a> are involved. It can take months to get a hearing. </p>
<p>It can also be invasive because Oranga Tamariki has to write reports on the suitability of the parents for parenthood. </p>
<p>For those engaging in international surrogacy, there are further problems. Oranga Tamariki needs to see the child in their new home to write the report for adoption, but the child cannot travel to New Zealand with adults who are not the legal parents without additional red tape (involving both countries granting discretionary visas).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tamati Coffey in parliament" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419931/original/file-20210908-25-1ay70l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Labour MP Tamati Coffey’s members’ bill has not yet been drawn from the parliamentary ballot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When is parentage transferred?</h2>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/surrogacy/">UK</a> and <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/review-of-the-family-law-system-issues-paper-ip-48/issues-paper-5/legal-principles-in-relation-to-parenting-and-property-2/">Australia</a> have considered updating their laws to meet the increasing demand for surrogacy, New Zealand has failed to revisit this important law until now. </p>
<p>Two members’ bills by <a href="http://adoptionaction.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2015-06-23-Care-of-Children-Adoption-and-Surrogacy-Law-Reform-Amendment-Bill_v1.pdf">Kevin Hague</a> in 2018 and <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/proposed-members-bills/improving-arrangements-for-surrogacy-bill-tamati-coffey/">Tamati Coffey</a> in 2019 were never drawn from the parliamentary ballot. Coffey’s bill was re-entered into the ballot in 2021 but has not yet been drawn.</p>
<p>So the Law Commission review is both welcome and overdue. In particular, the complex decisions around legal parenthood in a surrogacy relationship need careful attention.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/commercial-surrogacy-lifting-legal-restrictions-is-the-moral-thing-to-do-to-help-people-trying-to-have-babies-108999">Commercial surrogacy: lifting legal restrictions is the moral thing to do to help people trying to have babies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Current law states that egg or sperm donors are not legal parents. This leaves four potential legal parents: the surrogate, her partner and the intended parent or parents. </p>
<p>While a simple approach might be to designate the intended parents as the legal parents, it is crucial the surrogate has the right to make all medical decisions during the pregnancy, including abortion if necessary. </p>
<p>Legal parentage must therefore be transferred to the intended parents after the birth to respect the rights of the surrogate. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-commercial-surrogacy-illegal-only-makes-aspiring-parents-go-elsewhere-54382">Making commercial surrogacy illegal only makes aspiring parents go elsewhere</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Greater certainty for families</h2>
<p>This crucial process raises complicated questions of when and how this transfer happens, including whether time is allowed for the surrogate to change her mind. </p>
<p>The Law Commission proposes a “dual pathway” reform. The first provides that transfer of parentage should occur through a simple administrative process, provided the ethics committee has approved the surrogacy and the surrogate confirms her consent after birth to the transfer of parentage. </p>
<p>For more complicated cases, the Family Court would be able to make a post-birth order (which differs from an adoption order).</p>
<p>By giving due consideration to all these ethical issues, the Law Commission’s proposals appear to reconcile the interests of all parties, giving greater legal certainty to families while making babies’ lives a little easier.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Law Commission is seeking <a href="https://surrogacy-consultation.lawcom.govt.nz/">submissions</a> on its proposals until September 23.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debra Wilson received funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation to research legal issues relating to surrogacy.
She is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Law Commission Surrogacy Project</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annick Masselot received funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation to research legal issues relating to surrogacy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martha Ceballos receives funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation to research legal issues relating to surrogacy.</span></em></p>Judges have described New Zealand’s surrogacy parentage laws as ‘creaky’ and ‘inadequate’. The Law Commission has finally proposed significant reform.Debra Wilson, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of CanterburyAnnick Masselot, Professor of Law, University of CanterburyMartha Ceballos, Researcher, School of Law, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1637122021-07-02T12:16:07Z2021-07-02T12:16:07ZReligion at the Supreme Court: 3 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409328/original/file-20210701-17-1ui7qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C8171%2C5415&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Illuminating recent Supreme Court rulings.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/supreme-court-royalty-free-image/1250962188?adppopup=true">Geoff Livingston via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court wrapped up its latest term on July 1, 2021, with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/01/politics-live-updates/">a couple of final opinions</a>.</p>
<p>It was the first session with Justice Amy Coney Barrett sitting on the bench. Her appointment – replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who <a href="https://theconversation.com/ruth-bader-ginsburg-helped-shape-the-modern-era-of-womens-rights-even-before-she-went-on-the-supreme-court-95705">died in September 2020</a> – tipped the balance further in favor of conservative-leaning justices, who now hold a 6-3 majority in the highest court of the land.</p>
<p>Religion proved a throughline for the session. Legal arguments over the extent to which First Amendment rights <a href="https://theconversation.com/amy-coney-barrett-sizes-up-30-year-old-precedent-balancing-religious-freedom-with-rule-of-law-149600">protect faith-based groups in the public sphere</a> were among the first heard back in November, with a ruling on the matter coming down in mid-June. In between, the justices were called upon to decide whether <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-11-26/supreme-courts-conservatives-lift-covid-restrictions-on-new-york-houses-of-worship">religious freedoms should trump health concerns</a> during the pandemic, among other issues.</p>
<p>These rulings tended to fall in favor of religious liberty. Legal experts writing for The Conversation were on hand to help explain what it all means. </p>
<h2>1. A verdict that hints at more to come?</h2>
<p>Getting a unanimous verdict on a contentious issue is no mean feat. But it was achieved in the case of <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-123">Fulton v. City of Philadelphia</a>, in which the justices agreed 9-0 that the city was wrong to end its relationship with a Catholic adoption agency that refused to work with same-sex couples.</p>
<p>It was a narrow ruling that, initially at least, only affects the specific case brought to the court. To the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-cheer-for-the-supreme-court-on-religious-liberty-11623970233">disappointment of some conservatives</a>, it didn’t deliver an immediate, dramatic expansion of religious rights. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.uml.edu/fahss/political-science/faculty/marietta-morgan.aspx">constitutional law expert Morgan Marietta</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-unanimously-upholds-religious-liberty-over-lgbtq-rights-and-nods-to-a-bigger-win-for-conservatives-ahead-161398">argues it is nonetheless consequential</a>. “It means that any unequal treatment of religious groups will be regarded as a violation of the First Amendment, even if it comes at the expense of the dignity of LGBTQ citizens,” he writes.</p>
<p>And, Marietta adds, it could nod toward a greater victory for the religious right further down the track: “It suggests that when the broader question of whether religious groups have the right to discriminate does come before the justices, they will likely uphold religious liberty over gay rights.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-unanimously-upholds-religious-liberty-over-lgbtq-rights-and-nods-to-a-bigger-win-for-conservatives-ahead-161398">Supreme Court unanimously upholds religious liberty over LGBTQ rights – and nods to a bigger win for conservatives ahead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Continuing a winning streak</h2>
<p>The verdict in the Fulton case should come as no real surprise. As <a href="https://willamette.edu/law/faculty/profiles/green/index.html">Steven Green, professor of law at Willamette University</a>, writes, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-supreme-court-found-its-faith-and-put-religious-liberty-on-a-winning-streak-158509">Supreme Court has tended to look favorably on faith-based arguments</a> in recent years. He notes that since George W. Bush appointed John Roberts as chief justice in 2005, “the justices have ruled in favor of religious claimants 81% of the time.”</p>
<p>This winning streak extended into the pandemic with majority <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-courts-ruling-blocking-cuomos-covid-19-order-could-influence-other-cases-11606428800">rulings in which</a> <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/02/divided-court-allows-indoor-worship-services-to-resume-in-california/">the Supreme Court struck down</a> restrictions on religious services imposed to lower the risk of COVID-19’s spread.</p>
<p>Green points out that the court is essentially saying religious entities have to be treated as favorably as the most essential service in the pandemic when deciding if they should remain open. At the same time, such entities have been given the go-ahead to “discriminate against customers or employees in a way the essential services cannot,” according to Green.</p>
<p>“It is,” Green concludes, “the legal equivalent of having your cake and eating it, too.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-supreme-court-found-its-faith-and-put-religious-liberty-on-a-winning-streak-158509">How the Supreme Court found its faith and put 'religious liberty' on a winning streak</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Religious identity and ideology</h2>
<p>The backdrop to these rulings is a shift to the right – both religiously and politically – in the makeup of the Supreme Court in recent decades. <a href="https://gould.usc.edu/faculty/?id=312#:%7E:text=Nomi%20M.,liberalism%2C%20and%20law%20and%20literature.">Nomi Stolzenberg, professor of law at University of Southern California</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-identity-and-supreme-court-justices-a-brief-history-146999">took a deep look at the history of religious identity</a> at the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>She explains that religion has “always played a strong role” in shaping the composition of the Supreme Court. But the nature of that influence has changed over time. Whereas until the 1980s it was denominational in nature – that is to say, focus was on the faiths that justices ascribe to – it is now ideological: </p>
<p>“In recent decades it has been shaped by conservatives of different faiths, construed as part of a mythical Judeo-Christian tradition, coalescing around a common agenda,” Stolzenberg writes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-identity-and-supreme-court-justices-a-brief-history-146999">Religious identity and Supreme Court justices – a brief history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163712/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Religion was a common theme in some of the cases to come before the nine justices in the recently concluded Supreme Court term. Three experts help explain what is at stake.Matt Williams, Senior International EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1631422021-07-02T12:14:36Z2021-07-02T12:14:36ZFar more adults don’t want children than previously thought<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408702/original/file-20210628-23-40ggr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=733%2C276%2C4236%2C3023&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The study found that child-free people were just as satisfied with their lives as those with kids.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/empty-footpath-by-street-in-city-royalty-free-image/1235575586?adppopup=true">Aleksandr Faustov/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409348/original/file-20210701-5537-fvnfd3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fertility rates <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/05/993817146/u-s-birth-rate-fell-by-4-in-2020-hitting-another-record-low">in the United States have plunged to record lows</a>, and this could be related to <a href="https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2148636,00.html">the fact that more people are choosing not to have children</a>.</p>
<p>But just how many “child-free” adults there are has been tricky for researchers to pin down.</p>
<p>National fertility data provided by the <a href="https://www.census.gov/topics/health/fertility/data.html">U.S. Census</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/index.htm">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> lump together all adults who aren’t parents, making it difficult to understand how many people identify as child-free.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kcD2PeYAAAAJ&hl=en">As social scientists</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HVJX9_gAAAAJ&hl=en">we think</a> it’s important to distinguish child-free individuals from those who are childless or not yet parents. People who are child-free <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00496.x">make the conscious decision not to have kids</a>. They’re distinct from childless individuals – adults who want children but can’t have them – and from people who plan to have children in the future. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252528">In a 2021 study</a> of 1,000 people, we found that over 1 in 4 Michigan adults did not want biological or adopted children and were, therefore, child-free. This number was much higher than those reported in the few past national studies that have attempted to identify child-free people, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4122892">which placed the percentage</a> between 2% and 9%.</p>
<h2>Child-free by choice</h2>
<p>Although we can’t be sure why we identified more child-free people in our study, we suspect it may have something to do with how we determined who was child-free. </p>
<p>Past studies that attempted to estimate the prevalence of child-free individuals <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4122892">often focused only on women</a> and have used <a href="https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/12356">criteria based on fertility</a>. These studies left out men, older adults and biologically infertile people who nonetheless didn’t want children. </p>
<p>In our study, we used a more inclusive approach. We looked at both women and men, asking three yes-no questions that allowed us to determine who was child-free based on the desire to have children, rather than fertility: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Do you have, or have you ever had, any biological or adopted children? </p></li>
<li><p>Do you plan to have any biological or adopted children in the future?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you wish you had or could have biological or adopted children?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Those who answered “no” to all three questions we classified as child-free.</p>
<h2>Just like everyone else?</h2>
<p>In addition to examining how many child-free people there are, we also examined whether child-free people differed from parents, not-yet-parents and childless individuals in life satisfaction, personality or political views. </p>
<p>We found that child-free people were just as satisfied with their lives as others, and there were few personality differences. However, child-free people were more liberal than parents.</p>
<p>Although child-free people were pretty similar to everyone else, we did find that parents were less warm toward child-free people. This finding suggests that child-free individuals <a href="https://www.livescience.com/58094-child-free-parents-moral-outrage.html">may be stigmatized</a> in the United States. </p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Our study suggests that the number of people who choose not to have children may be larger than previously thought. Although our study focused on Michigan residents, <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US,MI/PST045219">the state’s population is similar to the overall U.S. population</a> in terms of age, race, income and education. So we’d expect to see similar numbers of child-free people in other states.</p>
<p>We hope to continue our research by collecting data over time across the country to determine whether it’s becoming more common to be child-free – and to understand how and why people make the choice not to have children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While past studies have placed the proportion of child-free American adults at somewhere between 2% and 9%, a study found that in Michigan, over 1 in 4 adults don’t want kids.Jennifer Watling Neal, Associate Professor of Psychology, Michigan State UniversityZachary P. Neal, Associate Professor of Psychology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613982021-06-18T17:50:24Z2021-06-18T17:50:24ZSupreme Court unanimously upholds religious liberty over LGBTQ rights – and nods to a bigger win for conservatives ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407218/original/file-20210618-15-14zupid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court has tended to side in favor of religious rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtFosterCareImpact/b35b639fd5144d778acbad3e33373d28/photo?Query=Catholic%20Social%20Services&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=85&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It wasn’t a dramatic expansion of religious rights – not yet. But the Supreme Court’s ruling <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-123">in favor of a Catholic adoption agency</a> that had been excluded from Philadelphia’s foster programs for refusing to work with same-sex couples will be consequential. It suggests that when the broader question of whether religious groups have the right to discriminate does come before the justices, they will likely uphold religious liberty over gay rights.</p>
<p>The court’s decision, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf">delivered in a 9-0 ruling</a>, emphasizes a pluralist approach: The Christian agency gets to participate in the adoption programs while adhering to its religious beliefs, and LGBTQ couples will continue to have access to other adoption agencies within the Philadelphia system.</p>
<p>The ruling is narrow, but it means that any unequal treatment of religious groups will be regarded as a violation of the First Amendment, even if it comes at the expense of the dignity of LGBTQ citizens.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important aspect of the ruling is its unanimity in upholding a clear standard of neutral treatment for religious and secular groups. The city government claimed it was not violating this standard, but even the liberal justices agreed it was. </p>
<p>The city’s contention that government funding or the city’s contracting rules shifted the equation against religious rights was roundly rejected by the court. </p>
<p>The unanimous ruling was achieved by <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/17/22538645/supreme-court-fulton-philadelphia-lgbtq-catholic-social-services-foster-care-john-roberts-religion">delaying another core question</a> that some of the justices wanted to address: whether religious businesses or groups have the clear right to deny service to the LGBTQ community or whether states can insist that in the public square, such faith-based groups set aside discriminatory beliefs.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, as a <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/series/16259">scholar of the Supreme Court</a>, I believe the decision of the nine justices will have broad ramifications for current government policies and future judicial rulings. By subordinating the dignity of same-sex couples to the religious rights of believers, the court’s new decisive ruling will influence many interactions between religious organizations and LGBTQ citizens. </p>
<h2>Harming the dignity of same-sex couples</h2>
<p>The case in front of the Supreme Court addressed the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to continue to allow Catholic Social Services to participate in the city’s adoption and foster programs because the religious charity would not serve same-sex couples. </p>
<p><a href="https://cssphiladelphia.org/">The group</a> claimed that its <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment</a> right to free exercise of religion had been violated as a result. </p>
<p>The organization, along with <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opinion/commentary/catholic-social-services-philadelphia-lawsuit-lgbtq-gay-foster-parents-adoption-sharonell-fulton-20180524.html">Sharonell Fulton</a> and <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/Opinion-_-Why-I-hope-the-Supreme-Court-sides-with-Catholic-Social-Services-in-Fulton-v.-Philadelphia-The-Washington-Post1.pdf">Toni Simms-Busch</a> – two Catholic women who wished to serve as foster parents through the agency – sued the city.</p>
<p>They were aided by the <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/">Becket Fund for Religious Liberty</a>, a nonprofit law firm behind several successful Supreme Court cases, including 2014’s <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby-stores-inc/">Burwell v. Hobby Lobby</a>, which upheld the ability of religious businesses to refuse to pay for forms of contraception that violate their beliefs, and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/little-sisters-of-the-poor-saints-peter-and-paul-home-v-pennsylvania/">Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania</a> in 2021, which also protected religious exemptions to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. </p>
<p>The city of Philadelphia argued that religious rights do not allow for harms to third parties, including to the dignity of the same-sex couples being told publicly that they are not acceptable. </p>
<p>As one <a href="https://law.unlv.edu/faculty/leslie-griffin">constitutional law professor</a> wrote in an <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-123/150689/20200819171858226_39871%20pdf%20Griffin.pdf">amicus brief</a> in favor of the city: “The believers can believe whatever they like and organize their affairs through discriminatory purposes, to be sure, but not when the government is paying and not <a href="https://verdict.justia.com/2020/11/05/stigma-and-the-oral-argument-in-fulton-v-city-of-philadelphia">when the public is impacted</a>.”</p>
<p>But the justices seem to have agreed with the alternative framing offered by <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/staff/lori-windham/">Lori Windham</a>, the advocate for Fulton: “Does the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2020/19-123_o758.pdf">Free Exercise clause shrink</a> every time the government expands its reach and begins to regulate work that has historically and traditionally been done by religious groups?” </p>
<h2>A surprising unanimity</h2>
<p>All nine justices agreed with the core holding that Philadelphia could not exclude Catholic Social Services. There were no dissents from Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan or Sonia Sotomayor – the current liberal wing of the court. </p>
<p>But three of the conservative justices – Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas – signed <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=23">separate</a> <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=100">opinions</a> agreeing with the outcome but arguing that the protections of religious rights should have been even stronger.</p>
<p>The ruling does not protect the ability of religious groups to discriminate or exclude under any circumstances. Rather, it prevents government authorities only from applying different standards to religious and secular organizations. Philadelphia’s policies did not apply a “generally applicable” rule, but instead allow exceptions at their discretion.</p>
<p>In coming to their decision, the justices <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1989/88-1213">cited</a> previous <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1992/91-948">decisions</a> holding that if government allows exceptions for secular reasons, then the First Amendment demands that they also allow them for religious reasons. As Chief Justice John Roberts <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=14">phrased it</a>, “The creation of a formal mechanism for granting exceptions renders a policy not generally applicable.”</p>
<p>In presenting the case to the justices, Fulton’s attorney argued: “In our pluralistic society, this Court has repeatedly said that there should be room for those with different views.”</p>
<p>Roberts’ majority opinion <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=6">appears to reflect</a> that view: “No same-sex couple has ever sought certification from CSS. If one did, CSS would direct the couple to one of the more than 20 other agencies in the City, all of which currently certify same-sex couples.” </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=19">this reason</a>, “CSS seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else.”</p>
<h2>The expansion of religious rights</h2>
<p>At a mere 15 pages, the ruling is what Justice Alito described as a “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=99">wisp of a decision</a>” in his 77-page concurrence. He argued that the court should have decided more boldly in favor of expanded religious rights.</p>
<p>The Fulton decision follows a long string of <a href="https://theconversation.com/christianity-at-the-supreme-court-from-majority-power-to-minority-rights-119718">other rulings that have tipped in favor of religious claimants</a>. In recent years, the court has increasingly protected the freedom of religious groups <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/trinity-lutheran-church-of-columbia-inc-v-pauley/">in government programs</a>, in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-ltd-v-colorado-civil-rights-commn/">commerce</a>, in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/the-american-legion-v-american-humanist-association/">public displays</a> and in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/espinoza-v-montana-department-of-revenue/">public school programs</a>.</p>
<p>The most recent ruling also suggests the limits of LGBTQ rights under the current court. There have been no major victories on this issue at the Supreme Court since the 2018 retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-kennedys-lgbtq-legacy-may-be-short-lived-81239">author of every major gay rights ruling</a> in recent decades including Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country in 2015. But Kennedy himself hinted at the limits to LGBTQ rights when they are in opposition to religious liberties, writing in the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf#page=32">Obergefell</a> decision that “the First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths.”</p>
<p>Since the Obergefell case, most of the Supreme Court cases addressing LGBTQ rights have not been brought by an LGBTQ plaintiff. Instead, they have have been brought – and won – by religious groups.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p>
<h2>The question to come</h2>
<p>The Fulton case proved no exception to this <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-supreme-court-found-its-faith-and-put-religious-liberty-on-a-winning-streak-158509">winning streak for religious rights</a>. </p>
<p>But what the ruling did not do is hand down a definitive answer to the question that these cases are moving toward: Should gay rights or religious rights yield when the two are in irreconcilable conflict? When the court answers that question, it will likely not be unanimous. But the current trajectory suggests that religious rights are more likely to prevail.</p>
<p>As Justice Gorsuch concluded in his concurring opinion, “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=109">dodging the question today guarantees it will recur tomorrow</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In an unanimous decision, the nine justices said the city of Philadelphia was wrong to exclude a Catholic agency from its adoption programs.Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1608972021-05-14T14:37:57Z2021-05-14T14:37:57ZIreland’s shame: reforming an adoption system marked by secrecy and trauma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400776/original/file-20210514-19-csuzwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1361&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the 20th century Magdalene laundries were punitive institutions where young "fallen" women – pregnant and unmarried – endured a daily regime of silence, prayer and hard labour. The last Magdalene laundry closed in 1996.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/8010431147">William Murphy/lFlickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the greater part of the 20th century Ireland was marked by a culture of shame that separated thousands of women from their children, many of whom were forcibly given up for adoption. The trauma inflicted by these separations was compounded by legal barriers that prevented adopted people from accessing information about themselves. </p>
<p>However, on Tuesday May 12, the Irish government published a draft bill that would give those adopted the right to access their birth information. This comes in the wake of decades of activism by <a href="http://adoption.ie">adopted people</a> and their supporters, and has the potential to significantly reform an adoption system historically marked by secrecy, shame and the trauma arising from <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/stories-from-the-homes-the-td-who-landed-woman-in-trouble-and-the-girls-forced-to-cut-timber-1.4457108">institutionalisation</a>. </p>
<p>In modern Ireland, institutions such as mother and baby homes and the <a href="http://jfmresearch.com/home/preserving-magdalene-history/about-the-magdalene-laundries/">Magdalene Laundries</a> were tasked by the state to deal with “fallen” women who had transgressed ideals of Irish femininity, especially by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Their children were either boarded out to foster parents, institutionalised, or adopted by families of the same faith, some as far away as America, and – as survivors, advocates and researchers <a href="http://clannproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Clann-Submissions_Redacted-Public-Version-October-2018.pdf">have long maintained</a> – often under questionable circumstances. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/spfBTJIhMiI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Many searches by birth parents and children have been thwarted (as poignantly captured in the Oscar-nominated film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/31/philomena-review">Philomena</a>), and adopted people in Ireland have been denied information about themselves – if it still exists – that is readily available in other jurisdictions. Although there have been media investigations and the government commissioned a 2019 <a href="https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/126409/d06b2647-6f8e-44bf-846a-a2954de815a6.pdf#page=null">review</a> into a small sample of illegal adoptions, and published its <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/mbhcoi/">mother and baby homes investigation</a> in March, there has never been a fully fledged investigation into adoption practices in Ireland.</p>
<p>The information we do have, including testimony from adopted people and their birth parents, calls into question the legality and morality of such practices. A recent RTÉ Prime Time <a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit/2021/0302/1200520-who-am-i-the-story-of-irelands-illegal-adoptions/">investigation</a> showed how familial relationships were deliberately and systematically severed, with children taken and given away – all to enforce a particular moral code.</p>
<h2>Punishing women and their children</h2>
<p>That code, as we now know, was highly problematic, informed by a social conservatism and Catholic moral teaching that particularly penalised women and children. As with so many investigations into Ireland’s past, shame featured here as a frame with which powerful figures – seemingly acting with impunity – established women as deserving or undeserving of children.</p>
<p>Shame, and the potential revealing of one’s “shame” of being pregnant, was used as a means of control. The fall-out from this culture and the consequences of its secretive and illegal separation of women and children, was movingly related by adopted people in the RTÉ documentary. They highlighted the ongoing hurt such practices have caused down through the generations, compounded by their inability to access their birth records.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x6ToSr_LSKU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The recent <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/mbhcoi/">mother and baby homes investigation</a> was set up by the Irish government to examine the practices and treatment of women and so-called illegitimate children at these institutions. Sadly it did not engage in an in-depth assessment of adoption in Ireland, and its March 2021 report includes some highly questionable assertions, including that there was little evidence of “forced adoption”.</p>
<p>Bizarrely, the report simultaneously maintains that women “did not have much choice” but to give their child up for adoption, and “had no alternative” but to enter a mother and baby home when pregnant. It attributes responsibility for the “harsh treatment” meted out to unmarried pregnant women to the fathers and their own immediate families, casting the church and state in mere contributory roles. These and other sections of the commission’s report are being disputed by survivors, a number of whom, including prominent advocate Philomena Lee (subject of the eponymous film), are seeking to quash parts of the report <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/philomena-lee-among-five-given-leave-to-challenge-mother-and-baby-homes-report-1.4535356">via the courts</a>.</p>
<p>But what of the powerful people who ran not just the institutions, but Irish society more generally, and who maintained the wider culture of shame? What of the religious orders and doctors shown in Prime Time’s investigation who made decisions about who was to have a child, and <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/%C3%A9amon-de-valera-s-son-facilitated-illegal-adoptions-in-1960s-1.4499519">illegally facilitated</a> the taking of children? </p>
<h2>Missed opportunity</h2>
<p>While the commission includes references to shame in its report, it did not refer to the academic literature on the subject – not even in an Irish context, an area in which I conduct my research. There is a growing body of important work on the <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/46172566.pdf">role of gendered shame in Ireland</a> and how this relates to processes of institutionalisation.</p>
<p>Had the commission consulted such work, it might have come to some very different conclusions, and avoided the <a href="http://www.nuigalway.ie/globalwomensstudies/news/researchers-respond-to-the-report-of-the-commission-of-inquiry-into-mother-and-baby-homes.html">considerable criticisms</a> made by researchers, survivors and their supporters. It might have encountered the idea of “<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/55780">affective economies</a>” of shame (highlighting how shame circulates between and becomes attached to certain people), and questioned who benefited materially and socially from the sexual shaming of women and their children. And it might have developed a better understanding of how shame operates through social structures, including gender and class, and how inequalities are reproduced through shame. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gUZRJC6ePDM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The challenge now is to acknowledge the past injustices committed against women and children through the deployment of shame, and to disrupt the trauma that is still being compounded by inadequate treatment of the people most affected. Any action must, at a minimum, entitle adopted people to information about themselves, including via this newly announced legislation.</p>
<p>Although this draft bill has just been published, adopted people have already <a href="https://twitter.com/cmcgettrick/status/1392140992917159937">raised some concerns</a> about its design; they have questioned the need for meetings with social workers to explain privacy regarding parents who have indicated a desire for no contact, and expressed disappointment at the inability of relatives to apply for birth information on behalf of deceased loved ones.</p>
<p>The Irish state must now work with adopted people to ensure this legislation fully provides them with the information they should have been entitled to long ago. In this way it will take an important step in redressing the impact of this legacy of shame in Ireland.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clara Fischer has previously received funding from the British Academy for a research fellowship on the politics of shame in relation to gender and institutionalisation in Ireland.</span></em></p>The conservative Catholic moral code that underpinned adoption in Ireland penalised vulnerable women and their children. Now a proposed new law seeks to redress the impact of this legacy of shame.Clara Fischer, Vice-Chancellor Illuminate Fellow, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1585092021-04-13T12:38:42Z2021-04-13T12:38:42ZHow the Supreme Court found its faith and put ‘religious liberty’ on a winning streak<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394632/original/file-20210412-19-11bzhan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C7784%2C5158&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have bolstered the conservative wing of the Supreme Court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supreme-court-justices-amy-coney-barrett-neil-gorsuch-elena-news-photo/1230704283?adppopup=true">Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court’s current term <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/2021TermCourtCalendar.pdf">is winding down</a>, but there are still several cases to be decided – and, as with most terms, a controversy over church-state matters looms.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-123">Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia</a> is among the cases still to be decided. It centers on a requirement that private agencies that receive city funding – in this case an adoption agency – do not discriminate against any community they serve, including members of the LGBTQ community. This nondiscrimination requirement applies to both religious and nonreligious organizations. But the adoption service at the heart of the case – Catholic Social Services – <a href="https://theconversation.com/amy-coney-barrett-sizes-up-30-year-old-precedent-balancing-religious-freedom-with-rule-of-law-149600">refused to comply</a>, asserting that not being allowed to discriminate against gay couples infringed upon its religious beliefs. </p>
<p>It would appear on first glance that the city’s position is strong – after all, it provides the money and has a legitimate interest in ensuring that funding does not perpetuate discrimination based on sexual orientation. </p>
<p>Yet, Catholic Social Services and its counsel, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/religious-liberty-law-firm-praises-scotus-shadow-docket-in-bid-to-take-down-californias-covid-restrictions/">Becket Fund for Religious Liberty</a>, believe that they have the wind at their back regarding their claim. From my perspective as a <a href="https://willamette.edu/law/faculty/profiles/green/index.html">professor of law who has closely monitored such religious liberty cases</a>, they could be right. Religious claimants have been on a winning streak before the Supreme Court in recent years. They notched up their latest victory on April 9 when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/supreme-court-coronavirus-prayer-meetings.html">justices ruled that California could not impose</a> COVID-19 restrictions on religious gatherings at private homes.</p>
<h2>A noticeable shift</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court has become increasingly conservative over the past two decades, with <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx">five of the last seven justices appointed by Republicans</a>. As a result, it has become increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-identity-and-supreme-court-justices-a-brief-history-146999">sympathetic to claims by religious conservatives</a> that mandatory nondiscrimination laws violate their ability to practice their beliefs, as protected by the Constitution and federal law.</p>
<p>Two <a href="http://epstein.wustl.edu/research/ReligionInCourt.pdf">recent studies</a> have confirmed this trend. One <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3707248">found that since</a> the George W. Bush-appointed John Roberts assumed the role of chief justice in 2005, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of religious claimants 81% of the time. This compares with a rate of about 50% for the 20th century.</p>
<p>Some of the recent cases are familiar; others, less so. In 2014, the justices <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2013/13-354">relieved the craft store chain Hobby Lobby</a> from having to provide employees with health insurance that covers contraception, as mandated by the <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/">Affordable Care Act</a>. Hobby Lobby had objected to the requirement on religious grounds. </p>
<p>And in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-supreme-court-just-expanded-the-ministerial-exception-shielding-religious-employers-from-anti-bias-laws-142248">teachers employed by religious schools were not entitled to protection against age and disability discrimination</a> as a result of the “ministerial exception” – which allows religious entities to ignore anti-bias legislation if they can assert that staff perform even minimal religious duties. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in 2018, a majority of justices suggested that a small business – here, a baker – could <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/us/politics/supreme-court-sides-with-baker-who-turned-away-gay-couple.html">refuse to serve gay customers</a> because of the owner’s religious objections to same-sex marriage. The court has also held that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-religion/u-s-supreme-court-endorses-taxpayer-funds-for-religious-schools-idUSKBN2412FX">states have to give the same grants and tax breaks</a> to churches and religious schools that they do to nonreligious entities.</p>
<p>This trend has extended into the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, a sharply divided court <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-reopening-churches-in-the-pandemic-supreme-court-says-grace-aint-groceries-135287">refused to overturn state restrictions</a> – which for the most part classified houses of worship alongside restaurants and movie theaters as “nonessential,” distinguishing them from “essential” services such as medical offices, pharmacies and grocery stores. But in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-courts-ruling-blocking-cuomos-covid-19-order-could-influence-other-cases-11606428800">late fall</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/02/divided-court-allows-indoor-worship-services-to-resume-in-california/">again in February</a>, a majority including the newly appointed religiously conservative Justice Amy Barrett struck down such orders. In so doing, they ruled that states must treat houses of worship no worse than the most favored category of essential services.</p>
<h2>Redefining religious freedom</h2>
<p>In prioritizing religious liberty claims over health and anti-bias concerns, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has, to my mind, promoted a skewed conception of what religious freedom is. </p>
<p>Religious freedom has traditionally meant more than simply the ability to practice one’s beliefs unencumbered, free from state interference. It is a condition that lives alongside other important democratic values – such as equal rights and a separation of church and state.</p>
<p>But the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has come down on the side of a narrower interpretation of religious liberty to mean the right of individuals or groups to practice their faith as they see fit.</p>
<p>The court’s new emphasis on protecting religious liberty has redefined the conventional understanding of the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1_1_4_1/">free exercise clause</a>. Traditionally, that has meant the government could not impose a substantial burden on one’s ability to practice religion, but that lesser restrictions on that practice – such as adhering to health or safety regulations – were not unconstitutional.</p>
<p>But under the current Supreme Court, the degree of burden is less important than whether the state is treating religion differently from secular counterparts. Furthermore, in the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a87_4g15.pdf">view of another Trump appointee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh</a>, religion deserves most-favored-nation status.</p>
<p>In this way, religious entities cannot be treated any differently in the pandemic from the most essential service – but they would be able to discriminate against customers or employees in a way the essential services cannot. It is, I believe the legal equivalent of having your cake and eating it, too.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven K. Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conservative justices are redefining religious freedom to mean the protection of individuals or groups to practice their faith as they see fit, argues a constitutional law expert.Steven K. Green, Professor of Law, Director of the Center for Religion, Law & Democracy, Willamette UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1569212021-03-17T17:22:31Z2021-03-17T17:22:31ZSpecial guardianship helps thousands of children to leave care. It needs more support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390125/original/file-20210317-19-82d63u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4924%2C3250&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/family-childhood-adoption-people-concept-sad-650287021">Syda Productions/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The pandemic has brought with it yet more hardship for families across the nation. But amid increases in <a href="https://theconversation.com/domestic-abuse-workers-reveal-the-trauma-of-trying-to-help-victims-during-lockdown-145273">domestic abuse</a>, parental and <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-parenting-strategies-to-reduce-your-kids-pandemic-stress-151419">child mental health difficulties</a> as well as deprivation and poverty, the impact on family courts has yet to be fully documented. </p>
<p>This is despite the integral role these courts play in intervening when it’s not safe for a child to remain at home. Without those opportunities to step in, more children could fall through the cracks, especially as the courts already expect an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55682745">increase in child protection cases</a> when lockdown ends and schools have reopened (schools are one of the main referrers to children’s services).</p>
<p>The challenges over addressing and lessening the effects of the expected increase in demand for children’s services are enormous. Against this background, the work of the recently launched independent review of children’s social care is especially important. Described as a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/952624/terms_of_reference_independent_childrens_social_care_review.pdf">“once in a generation opportunity to reform systems and services”</a>, the review is intended to be “bold” and “ambitious”.</p>
<p>The important role of adoption in providing children who can’t remain with their birth parents with a safe and permanent new home is singled out for special mention in the review. Boosting adoptions was a 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge which aimed to reduce the number of children in foster and residential care. Kinship care, which enables children to be brought up by family and friends, is also named as a priority for support. There are around 220,000 children currently living in these private family arrangements with their extended family or with friends.</p>
<p>But the review is silent on a less well-known legal order: special guardianship. The order gives carers – mostly relatives – the main parenting responsibilities and lasts until the child reaches the age of 18. Introduced into law in 2002, it was designed for children who, by virtue of their age, the strength of existing family ties, their culture, religion or their status as unaccompanied asylum seekers, needed an alternative to adoption.</p>
<h2>The benefits of special guardianship</h2>
<p>Special guardianship has struggled under a veil of invisibility since it was first introduced. Yet in recent years there’s been a remarkable transformation in its use. Family courts have placed more children with special guardians than with adopters in recent years, keeping children in their family networks and enabling them to stay in contact with their birth parents. In 2020, <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2020">3,700 children were placed with special guardians</a> and 3,440 were adopted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="little girl wearing a dress running to man with open arms in park" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390127/original/file-20210317-15-11vvmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just 5% of children under special guardianship risk returning to court because of further harm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cute-asian-little-girl-playing-running-1259089474">Sukjai Photo/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.cfj-lancaster.org.uk/projects/supervision-orders-and-special-guardianship-a-national-study">National research led by Lancaster University</a> shows this is a clear pattern. More than <a href="https://www.cfj-lancaster.org.uk/app/nuffield/files-module/local/documents/HARWIN%20main%20report%20SO%20and%20SGOs%20_%204Mar2019.pdf">21,000 vulnerable children</a> now live with their extended family on a special guardianship order. The courts have played a part in this transformation by saying that adoption should only be used when “nothing else will do”. Put slightly differently, the message is that family ties matter and should be preserved and built on whenever possible, which was a principle of the Children Act 1989.</p>
<p>The research also shows that special guardianship brings many benefits to children. It gives children a stable and permanent home. Just <a href="https://www.cfj-lancaster.org.uk/app/nuffield/files-module/local/documents/HARWIN%20main%20report%20SO%20and%20SGOs%20_%204Mar2019.pdf">5% of children</a> under special guardianship return to court because of further harm within five years. Though the figure for adoption is lower <a href="https://www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/app/nuffield/files-module/local/documents/making_special_guardianship_work_briefing_paper.pdf">(0.007%)</a>, 5% is still considered a small proportion. Children cared for by special guardians also have <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/884749/CLA_Outcomes_Additional_Tables_2019_Text.pdf">better results at school</a> than those who are looked after by children’s services (typically those in foster or residential care). For these children, belonging to a family and the anchor that it provides is highly valued. </p>
<p>But this isn’t the full picture. A powerful film made by Lancaster University with leading children’s charities Kinship and CoramBAAF, vividly illustrates the lack of support special guardians and their families receive and the struggles they face.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pNO1sZb5mjc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The decision to bring up a child in their wider family will change the lives of special guardians forever, yet they have no automatic entitlement to legal aid and don’t receive training. Special guardians aren’t a priority for rehousing either, and financial support from local authorities is patchy and variable. And, although guardians are entitled to therapeutic support from the Adoption Support Fund for the children in their care, <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-02-10/14701">only 9% received help</a> in the past four years – the rest went to adopters. Unlike fostering and adoption, special guardians don’t get automatic employment leave when the child joins their family. The playing field is far from level.</p>
<h2>Fixing the issues ahead</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PLWG-SGO-Final-Report-1.pdf">first steps</a> have been taken to address these serious issues and to improve practice by children’s services and the courts. But the agenda for change must go much further. A national coordinated strategy is needed, supported by key government departments that recognise the benefits special guardianship brings to children, their families and society. </p>
<p>On March 15, a <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/call-for-open-door-to-support-for-special-guardians-taking-on-life-changing-caring-role">landmark webinar</a> brought together sector leaders (including the chair of the independent review of children’s social care) and publicly acknowledged the need for change. The webinar, hosted by Lancaster University in partnership with Kinship and CoramBAAF, launched their <a href="https://youtu.be/euISHK0fbIs">new film</a> a second film which identifies top priorities for sector leaders.</p>
<p>But there’s still much more to do. If properly supported in law, policy and practice, special guardians can play a larger role in providing abused and neglected children with loving, safe and secure homes. Although it costs more to give special guardians the same range of support that adopters receive, in the long run, fewer children are likely to need foster care or residential care. Children flourish better when they <a href="https://www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/resource/special-guardianship-a-review-of-the-evidence">remain with their relatives</a>.</p>
<p>The benefits of supporting and promoting special guardianship alongside adoption far outweigh the merits of the current situation. As Britain begins to open up again, providing as many avenues of support for children as possible will be a matter of urgency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Harwin has received funding from The Nuffield Foundation and The Department for Education.
Grants from the Nuffield Foundation:
1. The contribution of supervision orders and special guardianship to family justice and children’s lives. Juth Harwin, principal investigator, 2015–2018
2. Evaluation research on the family drug and alcohol court in care proceedings - 2007–2011 and 2011–2013 - was funded by
the Nuffield Foundation.
3. Grant from Department for Education Children's Social Care Innovation Fund to carry out the studies: After
FDAC: outcomes 5 years later and problem-solving in court: current practice in FDACs in England</span></em></p>The legal order has struggled under a veil of invisibility for years. But research shows it provides better outcomes for many vulnerable childrenJudith Harwin, Professor in socio-legal studies and co-director of the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1412632020-08-11T12:09:34Z2020-08-11T12:09:34ZChildren in foster care face deeper jeopardy during the coronavirus pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351832/original/file-20200808-22-8yssll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1886&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Movie star and comedian Tiffany Haddish, left, is a former foster child who now advocates on behalf of foster children.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tiffany-hadish-greets-dax-shepard-at-the-4th-annual-evening-news-photo/530455018">FilmMagic/FilmMagic for CASA of Los Angeles/via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The stress and isolation caused by job losses, school closings and limited social interactions, along with the sharp economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, have made life harder for everyone – especially people who already faced economic hardship. But the roughly <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/fil**es/cb/afcarsreport26.pdf">435,000 U.S. children</a> in foster care have been hit especially hard. </p>
<p>The nation’s foster care system, established to provide short-term care for kids whose families can’t safely meet their needs, has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.01.028">struggled to fulfill its mission</a>.</p>
<p>Based on my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=azdVkv8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">scholarship regarding foster care</a>, I’m particularly concerned about how <a href="http://www.centernyc.org/news-center/2020/4/20/covid-19-paused-family-reunification-cases-theyre-resuming-but-at-what-pace">social distancing has delayed</a> and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/delays-despair-coronavirus-pandemic-halts-family-reunification-hearings/story?id=69904950">reduced the number of family reunification hearings</a>.</p>
<p>Those hearings play a pivotal role in determining whether and when children can be safely returned to their families or placed for adoption. Official numbers aren’t available yet, but this disruption is surely causing kids to languish in foster care for longer periods of time, increasing their stress and uncertainty.</p>
<h2>Many hazards</h2>
<p>Social distancing is also <a href="https://wkow.com/2020/07/23/its-a-tremendously-difficult-balancing-act-wisconsin-dcf-continues-visits-during-the-pandemic/">disrupting visits between foster children and their biological families</a>. In most situations, these visits are essential for maintaining family connections and preparing children and their families to reunite successfully.</p>
<p>Sustaining close parent-child relationships is particularly critical for the <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/afcarsreport26.pdf">babies and children under 3 who account for 30%</a> of the children in foster care. Long stretches of time without being able to cuddle with the biological parent can disrupt these relationships and endanger children’s emotional health.</p>
<p>Long before the pandemic struck, tens of thousands of children had already been languishing in foster care, with an average stay of about 20 months. Nearly three in 10 children who enter foster care remain in temporary homes for more than two years. In 2018, more than 32,000 children had been stuck in supposedly temporary care for three years or more.</p>
<h2>Disrupted relationships</h2>
<p>Those <a href="https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/2055/">long stints harm children</a>, straining family ties and creating uncertainty regarding if and when children will return home. They also increase the chances that children will get <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/cwo2016.pdf#page=57">shuffled to multiple different foster families</a> and endure the added trauma of repeatedly losing relationships critical to their emotional well-being.</p>
<p>For older children, this instability <a href="https://www.firststar.org/the-impact-of-foster-care-on-students-education/">can undercut their education</a>, as each move typically results in changing schools. And both long stays and frequent placement changes reduce a child’s chances of ever returning home to their biological families or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.08.012">being adopted</a>.</p>
<p>Due, in part, to a shortage of foster homes, more than <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/afcarsreport26.pdf">47,000 children live in group homes and other institutions</a>. These institutions typically lack the stable, nurturing atmosphere and sense of belonging that families provide. </p>
<p>Moreover, at least <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/afcarsreport26.pdf">18,000</a> U.S. teens age out of the foster care system annually without ever becoming a part of a permanent family. After they move on, these <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/publications/supporting-older-youth-beyond-age-18-examining-data-and-trends-in-extended-foster-care">young adults face higher risks</a> than their peers for poverty, homelessness, too-early parenthood and even being <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtrafcon5/4/">swept into human trafficking</a>.</p>
<p>Authorities place <a href="https://www.aecf.org/resources/african-american-children-in-foster-care/">Black children into foster care</a> at higher rates than other children, and Black children spend more time in the system. This occurs regardless of their family’s circumstances and even though Black families are not more prone to child abuse or neglect.</p>
<p>In this way, foster care can layer additional risks upon children already facing disadvantages from growing up in a society ridden with racial inequities.</p>
<h2>Reform efforts</h2>
<p>Decades of state and federal <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/majorfedlegis.pdf">policy changes</a> have failed to transform foster care into the safe, supportive, short-term resource that some vulnerable children need.</p>
<p>The most recent federal legislation, the <a href="https://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/policy-priorities/child-welfare/family-first/">2018 Family First Prevention Services Act</a>, represents a step toward helping vulnerable families stay connected.</p>
<p>This law aims to help states improve services to troubled families and provide more support for relatives and family friends caring for children unable to remain safely at home. The latter could help separated children maintain family ties and avoid the trauma of being placed with strangers.</p>
<p>However, that law does not include any measures aimed at <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/02/child-poverty-rate-could-be-cut-in-half-in-next-decade-following-proposals-in-new-expert-report">reducing family poverty</a> – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2018.1543625">primary cause of foster care placements</a>. It also lacks provisions to remedy the disproportionate numbers of Black children languishing in foster care or the system’s chronic <a href="http://features.crosscut.com/foster-care-crisis-social-workers">shortage of social workers</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Root causes</h2>
<p>I believe that it’s time for more comprehensive change.</p>
<p>A crucial first step is to address the factors that cause children to be removed from their families in the first place. Foremost among them is <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/childrens-rights/articles/2014/addressing-underlying-issue-poverty-child-neglect-cases/">poverty</a>. Some 21% of American children are poor, and more than <a href="http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html#:%7E:text=About%2015%20million%20children%20in,level%20to%20cover%20basic%20expenses">40% are low-income but not below the poverty line</a>.</p>
<p>The majority of children entering foster care are from impoverished families whose problems include inadequate housing or being unable to put enough food on the table. Child protective authorities typically <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/153062/crime-parenting-poor-new-york-city-child-welfare-agency-reform">label the symptoms of family poverty</a> as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.04.005">child neglect</a>. A much smaller number of children end up in foster care due to physical or sexual abuse.</p>
<p>Moreover, stepping up efforts to eliminate the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.12.023">implicit racial bias</a> that too often affects the decisions that social workers and judges make could reduce the number of Black children needlessly separated from their families.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lenette Azzi-Lessing is paid to serve as an expert witness for Children's Rights in federal, class-action lawsuits on behalf of children harmed in foster care. She is a volunteer member of The Child Welfare League of America's National Commission on Policy and Practice and its National Standing Committee on Racial Equity, Fairness and Justice.</span></em></p>Visits between foster children and their biological families are being disrupted and reunification hearings delayed.Lenette Azzi-Lessing, Clinical Professor of Social Work, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1386722020-05-26T12:18:15Z2020-05-26T12:18:15ZI’ve been following families in open adoptions for 15 years, observing adoptive parents’ struggles to share painful origin stories with kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336591/original/file-20200520-194978-ryxmfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3828%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knowing the truth about one's origins is crucial to identity formation, according to adoption experts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/parents-talking-with-son-on-bench-in-park-royalty-free-image/1130374456">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Adoption has changed dramatically in recent years. <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-adoptions-have-dropped-72-percent-since-2005-heres-why-91809">International adoptions have dropped dramatically</a> since 2005. Today, most adoptions are domestic, with the <a href="http://www.kinshipcenter.org/resources/blog/open-adoptions-are-a-national-trend-study-finds-that-95-of-us-infant-adoptions-have-openness.html">vast majority</a> being open adoptions, meaning there is some type of contact or exchange of information between birth families and adoptive families, before and sometimes after the adoption. </p>
<p>Research has shown that openness benefits all parties involved. <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/bulletins_maintainrelationships.pdf">Birth parents</a> are reassured the child they placed is alive and well, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/NMC.0000000000000370">alleviating anxiety and guilt</a>. Adoptive parents are able to answer their children’s inevitable questions, and also experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407515611494">comfort and reassurance</a> knowing they were chosen by the birth family and can be in touch with them <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDF/bulletins_maintainrelationships.pdf">if genetic questions arise</a>. For children, openness eliminates the need to search for their birth parents. Access to birth parents <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/open-adoption-and-diverse-families-9780190692032">allows children to gain insight</a> and ask questions about their identity and roots. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://www.abbiegoldberg.com">psychologist</a> who studies open adoption. One topic <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/famp.12491">I research</a> is how adoptive parents grapple with the decision of whether and when to share difficult origin stories with their children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336571/original/file-20200520-152327-k7mb6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most babies adopted in the United States today were born here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/loving-male-same-sex-couple-cuddling-baby-daughter-royalty-free-image/1177240987">monkeybusinessimages/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What psychologists recommend</h2>
<p>Adoption experts advise a <a href="https://bpar.org/telling-truth-adopted-foster-child-book/">full, honest disclosure</a> of a child’s origin story. This recommendation is based on years of research documenting the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00014">negative effects of secrecy</a> on adopted individuals. Psychologists emphasize the long-term benefits trust builds between parents and their children, as well as the need adopted individuals have to know the truth about their origins in order to <a href="https://www.nacac.org/resource/seven-core-issues-in-adoption-and-permanency/">fully understand themselves and have healthy and meaningful relationships</a>. This recommendation is firm, even in situations of rape or incest, birth parent substance abuse, incarceration or physical abuse.</p>
<p>Such discussions should be <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/open-adoption-and-diverse-families-9780190692032">developmentally staged</a>, meaning they should vary depending on the child’s age. For example, to a preschooler, parents might explain their birth mother was not healthy enough to care for them; to a teen, they might share their birth mother struggled with alcoholism.</p>
<p>All information should be shared with the child by the time they reach adolescence. Identity development begins in childhood but takes center stage in adolescence, when youth begin to ask key questions like “Who am I?” and “Who am I in relation to others?” For adopted teens, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J145v01n01_02">identity development can be more complete</a> if it involves coming to terms with their conception. If adopted youth are lied to about their origins, the discovery of such lies can prompt feelings of betrayal and <a href="https://www.nacac.org/resource/seven-core-issues-in-adoption-and-permanency/">amplify the shame and guilt</a> that often result from secrecy about adoption in the first place. </p>
<h2>Easier said than done</h2>
<p>While the theory of how and when to tell difficult origin stories to adopted children is clear, my research has found the practice more murky. </p>
<p>Since 2005, I’ve been conducting a long-term study of adoptive families. I first interviewed the parents prior to adoptive placement and have interviewed them every few years since – most recently, when their children were between the ages of eight and 12. Eleven couples in my study adopted children who were reportedly conceived via rape or incest.</p>
<p>From the time they agreed to the adoptive placement, all of these 22 parents carefully considered how their children’s conception circumstances would affect their children and what, if anything, they would need to tell them. Parents worried about the stigmatizing aspects of their child’s origin story, with several emphasizing they would keep the circumstances of their children’s conception private, within their immediate family.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336573/original/file-20200520-152344-wfwkwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Honesty leads to trust.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/perfect-family-holding-hands-adopted-child-being-royalty-free-image/1004735032">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I last interviewed them, none of the parents had shared explicit information about their children’s conception details. A few had tentatively raised the topic, by saying things like, “I don’t think that your birth parents were in love.” Two-thirds said they had not shared because they had incomplete or questionable information. </p>
<p>For example, they said they had been told by the adoption agency their child was conceived through rape, but not by the birth mother herself – so how did they know? Some wondered if the birth mother had said it was stranger rape to protect an older boyfriend from being accused of statutory rape. While parents said they wanted to believe birth mothers, the possibility of an alternative narrative gave them pause to consider the potential risks of telling a story to their children that might not be true. It’s possible, also, some were questioning birth mothers’ stories because they wish to believe a less stigmatizing version, enabling them to not have to tell it. </p>
<p>The desire to preserve children’s innocence, combined with uncertainty about birth mothers’ accounts, were described as key reasons for ongoing silence around their children’s origins. All study parents said they were uncertain about how they would share this information down the road. One-third had consulted or intended to consult with adoption therapists to plan the telling. Parents with ongoing birth mother contact described their intention to verify the story and plan its telling with her. </p>
<p>Adoptive parents in my study describe a commitment to openness, while also struggling with a lack of guidance around how and when to disclose difficult conception details. Indeed, adoptive parents generally get a lot of information and guidance before they adopt, but do not get a lot of post-adoption counseling <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.017">unless they seek it out</a>. </p>
<p>The parents in my study are hesitating to disclose, but are also worried about waiting too long and risking feelings of betrayal, such as, “Why did you lie to me?” Adoptive parents in this situation should consult with therapists <a href="https://adoptionsupport.org/member-types/adoption-competent-professionals/">who have training in adoption issues</a> as they navigate these uncertain waters, with the knowledge that children deserve the truth about their own stories – even when that truth is difficult.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abbie E. Goldberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Experts recommend adopted children be told about their origins, no matter how difficult the circumstances, but doing so is tricky for adoptive parents.Abbie E. Goldberg, Professor of Psychology, Clark UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1372022020-04-28T13:12:09Z2020-04-28T13:12:09ZHeartbreak of IVF cancellations and the desire to have genetically related children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331018/original/file-20200428-110738-wpph1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C34%2C5734%2C3794&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/baby-touching-woman-s-face-1257110/">Pexels</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>These are unsettling and uncertain times. Our lives have effectively been put on hold. And for some people, so too has the opportunity to become a parent – with <a href="https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_148694">fertility treatments suspended across a number of countries</a> due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has left thousands of fertility patients in limbo, experiencing uncertainty and grief.</p>
<p>Following <a href="https://www.britishfertilitysociety.org.uk/2020/03/18/guidance-for-the-care-of-fertility-patients-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/">the guidance</a> of the British Fertility Society and the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has <a href="https://www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/covid-19-and-fertility-treatment/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-professionals/">issued directions</a> requiring fertility clinics to suspend all treatments (with the exception of fertility preservation for cancer patients). </p>
<p>This is in part because the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women is <a href="https://www.eshre.eu/Press-Room/ESHRE-News">still unclear</a>. Fertility treatments also entail close contact between patients and staff, making it impossible to respect social distancing measures. And as caring for COVID-19 patients takes priority in terms of the distribution of available medical resources, fertility treatments have fallen under the category of non-essential treatments and procedures – which have been halted across the UK.</p>
<p>This has had very severe consequences for fertility patients. For some, this suspension adds an undefined amount of time to the years trying to conceive before becoming eligible for treatment – and to the months on the waiting list for IVF. </p>
<p>For those who have been injecting hormonal medications, closely monitoring their sleep, diet, mental and physical health, all this seems to have been done in vain. The age cutoff to be eligible for IVF <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ivf/availability/">varies across the UK</a>. This suspension might mean that women aged 35 in some areas, and 42 in others, will no longer be eligible for treatment.</p>
<h2>Essential vs non-essential</h2>
<p>This raises questions as to what should be considered “essential treatments”. It could be argued that fertility treatments are indeed non-essential. Trivially, no one is actually dying or missing out on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52382303">life-saving diagnoses</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/coronavirus-crisis-is-stopping-vital-cancer-care-doctors-say">or treatments</a>. Indeed, thinking of having a child during a pandemic, might seem a “<a href="https://biblescripture.net/Ecclesiastes.html">vanity of vanities</a>”.</p>
<p>Within discussions on the ethics of reproductive technologies, some criticise fertility treatments for these reasons – especially when they involve <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bioe.12332?casa_token=jJuix_W8YUAAAAAA%253AVljUJ4CUhc3h4I5K3635k40sEYMC36bj_xEnKgKc3szJUDIpgJeHQNydsHOzy-04K6Tij7BC_UdAmA">the development</a> and use of <a href="https://jme.bmj.com/content/44/12/835.info">new technologies</a>. They contend that state funding should be <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/japp.12091?casa_token=K1k7zLEzKNIAAAAA%253ABEToQURBo_qqkFAA3885Sru8mawWY4XIDo9SCT5jwYBwXCqyJHH1hsPCTBJ3YySRbYHR_FQmPUFPsQ">allocated elsewhere</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hast.594?casa_token=Oy3EghHloQcAAAAA%253AMFqfWIGO_EJBVmmltXpDh_5wTgww7Y7b4b9hXbcu17oHp9Kv1FCcZ5109hFVS5n4VXU_SfWANWbX7g">employed for more pressing medical issues</a>. Others also argue that there are many children <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/jmp/13/6/article-p669_3.xml">in need of adoption</a> and that people can become parents in many other ways that do not entail costly and burdensome procedures. </p>
<p>Another critique of reproductive technologies stresses that the decision to undergo fertility treatments is not entirely autonomous and that oppressive <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ijfab.10.1.119">societal norms shape people’s preferences</a>. These norms <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4855&context=uclrev">emphasise the value of having genetically related children</a> over other forms of family formation – with women taking the biggest health risks.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has put unprecedented strain on healthcare systems. So it would be easy to conclude that fertility treatments should not be a priority. But maybe instead, we should rethink their social value. </p>
<h2>Ethics of fertility treatment</h2>
<p>Infertility can have profound psychological implications and can lead to <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ijfab.1.1.126">self-blame</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399902003987?casa_token=xoP1lcE1r-0AAAAA:9mbITP8NOThylUR36WTQF4QWP_hE5oCqUq8jex-jAP-qQtiHR-cNhUgpt7xSndHA0_tKoyB_">and distress</a>. Halting fertility treatments exacerbates all this. But it’s partly due to social norms that the experience of infertility is so psychologically devastating. </p>
<p>Making fertility treatments a priority during a pandemic and increasing funding in normal times may lend support to the view that a having a genetically related child is the only valuable way of becoming a parent.</p>
<p>This poses a dilemma: should people’s desire to have a genetically related child be fulfilled even if this might promote oppressive social norms? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C16%2C5390%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330778/original/file-20200427-145566-1fwf5tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biological families are still seen as the most attractive kind of families.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-family-walking-on-park-2880897/">Pexels</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her book <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Resisting_Reality.html?id=UYHgUWlPMgUC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique</a>, the philosopher Sally Haslanger contends there are two ways to address this difficult problem. </p>
<p>One way is to satisfy people’s desires and bring them as close as possible to fitting social norms. Not halting fertility treatments during the pandemic and increasing funding would be a way to do this. Another way would be to combat the dominance of such social norms, even when there are negative consequences for those involved.</p>
<h2>Predominance of genetic ties</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/giulia-cavaliere(9fcb3625-0daf-4ffd-8eba-6c1f93711970).html">my research</a>, I focus on the ethical and political questions raised by the development and use of reproductive technologies. My view is that neither of these approaches should be excluded when dealing with this dilemma. </p>
<p>Rather, people’s desire to have genetically related children must be respected, along with an understanding of the costs of not satisfying it. But there is also a need to critically engage with oppressive ideologies and the conditions that sustain them. </p>
<p>In this sense then, the predominance of genetic ties must be questioned along with the value it is attributed. But all this should be complementary to offering practical and moral support to people who are currently experiencing infertility. This is essential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giulia Cavaliere has received funding from the Wellcome Trust Society & Ethics Studentship to support her doctoral research. </span></em></p>Society shapes people’s preferences and emphasises the value of having genetically related children.Giulia Cavaliere, Lecturer in Professional Practice, Values and Ethics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1292912020-01-06T12:06:42Z2020-01-06T12:06:42ZHow to write better pet adoption ads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308378/original/file-20200102-11924-1tf1zpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Millions of shelter animals are adopted in the U.S. every year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-family-animal-shelter-choosing-dog-1079248691">hedgehog94/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>About 1.5 million dogs and cats are <a href="https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics">euthanized in shelters each year</a> because they weren’t adopted or had health problems that concerned potential owners.</p>
<p>Agencies often use “Adopt, Don’t Shop!” campaigns to encourage people to adopt from or donate to shelters, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20145">their effectiveness can be limited</a>.</p>
<p>How can adoption agencies persuade people to rescue pets who need a home?</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12647">In a paper published on Dec. 26</a>, I investigated the pet adoption problem using advertisements from the online database <a href="https://www.petfinder.com/">Petfinder</a>. The paper quantified the language patterns of nearly 680,000 adopted and unadopted pet ads.</p>
<h2>Concrete and analytic style</h2>
<p>The use of articles, like “a” and “the,” and prepositions, like “above” and “on,” indicate concrete and analytic thinking.</p>
<p>For example, one highly analytic ad of a dog who was adopted read, “Meet Christina! Breed: Bull Terrier Mix, Estimated DOB: 8/21/18, Sex: Female, Weight: 6-8 lbs, Health: Up-to-date on vaccinations & preventatives, Rescued From: South Carolina.”</p>
<p>By comparison, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115844">pronouns and storytelling words</a> such as “he,” “they” and “extremely” indicate a more narrative style. </p>
<p>An example of one ad that used many storytelling words read, “Look at the cuteness! This boy is adorable and he is full of love and is super playful. Make sure you have plenty of cat toys around because this boy loves his toys! Jack and his brothers are also super unique as they are polydactyl in their front paws.”</p>
<p>Each ad received a score from 0 to 100, with high scores suggesting the ad’s style was more analytic and less like a story.</p>
<p>The successful ads were more likely to contain a concrete and analytic style than the unsuccessful ads.</p>
<p>Animal adoption is not the only setting where such verbal patterns can have a persuasive impact. A study of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5108584/">HPV vaccination ads</a> showed that parents and physicians viewed formal, fact-based messages as more persuasive than those that were less straightforward.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2010.536844">Related peer-to-peer lending research</a> also suggests that people are more likely to receive money if their online ad is written in a concrete and analytic manner. </p>
<p><iframe id="YG5x7" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YG5x7/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Facts and photos</h2>
<p>A second important adoption indicator was the rate of social words in the ad, such as “buddy,” “friend” or “helper.”</p>
<p>The pet data revealed that social words might be red flags for potential owners. Most adopters care if the pet is healthy and has its vaccinations, and they want to learn about the adoption process. </p>
<p>Humanizing details – stating the pet is a “sweetheart” and will be a lifelong “companion” – might signal that the agency is hiding vital health details about the pet.</p>
<p>The lending study also found that people were less likely to receive money from strangers if their ad contained high rates of social words and humanizing details. </p>
<p>Words were not the only key features of adoption ads. On average, ads from adopted pets had more photos than unadopted pets. Photos may help to reduce uncertainty for owners whose introduction to a pet is online.</p>
<h2>Changing how people feel about adoption</h2>
<p>There is some evidence that language patterns can affect how people think and feel about the adoption process.</p>
<p>In an experiment, I had nearly 1,000 people from Amazon Mechanical Turk read an ad associated with adopted pets – analytic writing style with few social words – or unadopted pets – less analytic writing style with more social words.</p>
<p>Those who read the analytic and less social ad were nearly 6% more likely to say that they would adopt the pet and 4.5% more likely to say that they would visit its shelter than those who read the less analytic and more social ad.</p>
<p>These are small effects, but they can have a large impact since millions of pets need a home.</p>
<p>Writing style matters for pet adoption. If agencies are thoughtful about how their ads are communicated, pets can have an improved chance of adoption.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129291/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Markowitz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study analyzes the language in nearly 680,000 pet adoption ads.David Markowitz, Assistant Professor of Social Media Data Analytics, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.