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Adoption : Facts and Opinions Child Adoption in the Modern World. By Margaret Kornitzer. (Putnam. 16s.) Child Adoption in the Modern World. By Margaret Kornitzer. (Putnam. 16s.) THERE are, it seems, two schools of thought on the practice of adop- tion. One, represented especially by the adoption societies, is that no risks should be taken. Only children and adopters with a most favourable background should be accepted. The other school, represented by Mr. Kenneth Brill, Secretary of the Children's Officers' Association, and some of the Scottish authorities, is that adoption should be far wider. These see the phenomenon of hundreds of would-be adopters wanting children and hundreds of institutions with children lacking parental care ; and they think that more should be done to bring the two together. Apropos of risks, they point out that no heredity is perfect.
Miss Kornitzer, Press officer for the standing conference of adop- tion societies, naturally tends to their point of view. (The fifty-five adoption societies in Britain, though they do admirable work, are in no easy position. Many are small ; they arrange only about 10 per cent. of adoptions between them. They are supervised and unable to charge for their services, and, because the general public does not know of other means of adopting, besieged by applications.) " An indifferent mother," Miss Kornitzer comments, taking the strict view, can still get rid of her child too easily because there is a great pressure from would-be adopters "—but surely the indifference of the mother is a potent reason for adoption. There have been several studies recently making horrifying revelations of the cruelty of parents to their own children. " The great majorify of social workers," Miss Kornitzer says, again echoing the adoption societies, " hold that no child should be offered who is not perfectly healthy, of normal intelligence and with a ' normal ' background." But here she adds that " a forceful minority with great experience believe " in chances for the less perfect.
And indeed her whole practice through the book is to balance her own opinions with others that disagree. Thus, though she can write tartly, apropos of private adoptions of which she disapproves, " It may be that no legislation could be devised that would prevent medical practitioners from having a finger .. . in the adoption pie," she will later quote reports that adoptions arranged privately seem to cause very little trouble. She may be over-aware of the dangers of adoption ; she may even be a little disillusioned with the public, both that which wants babies and that which wants to get rid of them; but she has read enormously—her bibliography, containing much American material, is impressive—and she quotes honestly.
The book seems to have no specific aim except to gather the facts and opinions so far recognised. It -is partly practical, but would-be adopters have a special short chapter of advice so that they need not read the volume in tato ; and, as she says, it will not be perused by the ordinary unmarried mother. Dealing with the parties involved in adoption, the procedure and law, psychological points and history, it will be of much interest to the general public and especially to social workers. The procedure in other countries (the United States with two chapters to itself) may be read with less interest. The ordinary reader may be forgiven for skipping adop- tion law, say, in Greece.
The general impression left is that there are numbers of voices expressing opinions rather uncertainly. Adoption has only become popular since the two wars ; the first Act to legalise it in Britain was in 1926, and there has not been time for long-term results to be studied. Very little research has been done on it, also, though Somerset House is now attempting some analysis of the figures. Not only this, but the practice is tied up with the whole problem of child care. Before you could pronounce on it authoritatively, you would have to know, for example, the sort of life led by the illegiti- mate child that is not adopted, of which, as Dr. Bowlby recently pointed out, very little is known. Even the officials disagree among themselves, and the general public is well-intentioned but ignorant. This book, the most comprehensive so far on the-subject in Britain, will at least make available in an easy form the current facts and
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