The need for a law of adoption

Abstract

The practice of adoption is as old as history. It was known to the Babylonians and Greeks, and, coming closer to our own age, we can turn to the omniscient Shakespeare who, in Othello, puts into the lips of the Moor's father-in-law these words “I had rather to adopt a child than get it”. It is curious that such a long-founded process should only have been recognised by law during our generation and even then only in enlightened countries such as Canada, USA, England, Belgium, France and some others excluding, I regret to say, our own country. It is surprising how many of our fellow-citizens are ignorant of the absence of this law and synonymously how loosely the term “adoption” is used here. The fact that at present agreements are drawn up by solicitors to cover the transfer of children must tend to delude one, but in fact these agreements are completely invalid in law and can have merely psychological value. I shall, therefore, try to avoid using only the customary word “adoption” during this paper but will use it with the prefix “semi” to distinguish the status quo from what I hope an enlightened public will demand for the future.