What is meant by forced adoption?
Adoption is the means by which a child’s legal relationship with his birth parents is ended and the child becomes a legal member of a new family. Forced adoption is removal of a child without the consent of his parents, and often against their wishes.
Adoption was first introduced in the UK in 1926. There were 25,000 cases in 1968 but only 5,000 in 2014. What has changed is the typical adoption case. In the 1960s it would be a single mother reluctantly giving up her illegitimate baby. Now the typical adoption case would be a Local Authority requesting the Court to approve the adoption of a child who has already been through care proceedings and where the parents will not agree to this plan.
Why is it controversial?
It is often said that no other country in Europe adopts children without the agreement of their parents. In fact this is not true and non-consensual adoption takes place in as many as 20 other European countries in some circumstances. The debate about our system has gained momentum in the last 5 years and has been raised in Parliament and in the European parliament.
There are very legitimate concerns around the care system. The senior family Judge, Andrew McFarlane has very recently expressed concern about the number of care cases and questioned whether some of the less serious cases need to be brought to Court. Too many children are in living in foster care away from their families and without a long term plan.
However it is my view that non-consensual adoption is here to stay. It is not always in the best interests of children to stay with their family. Our law puts the rights of the children first and above the rights of the parents. It is easy to underestimate the traumatic long term effects of contested adoptions on families.
The debate is one where emotions inevitably are heightened and conspiracy theories abound.. There are many online groups for parents and others unhappy with the Court process for care and adoption proceedings.
Every year or so I am asked by parents I act for whether the Social Worker will be paid a cash amount (usually £500 or £1000) for their baby if he/she is adopted. The simple answer is No. Social Services may have targets about finding permanent homes for children already in foster care. Most Social Workers do their very best in difficult circumstances and with a heavy workload. The Courts and not Social Workers make final decisions. Mistakes can sometimes be made but this does not mean that the system is fatally flawed.
It is a great shame that the media and others make allegations with no proper factual basis. These make parents worried and frightened about what might happen to them and their children. These conspiracy theories detract from the proper debate we should be having about the problems in the system.
