Since early times, families have adopted children in all parts of the world. Records describing adoption in Ancient Rome, Babylonia, and China show the similarities and differences to the adoption practices we know today. This comprehensive resource provides both historical and current information on all aspects of adoption, from many countries and religions, including Africa, Britain, Canada, China, India, Islam, Japan, Jewish, Mexico, Mormon, and others. It provides information on the cultural, ethical, financial, legal, medical, psychological, and social implications of adoption. It highlights perspectives of the birth parents, adopting parents and the adopted child; open and closed adoption; national and international adoption; and grandparent and single-parent adoption. Primary documents, biographies of those in the adoption field, and sidebars identifying special facts relating to the history and experience of adoption, complete this most exhaustive resource that no library serving adopting parents, adoptees, or practitioners in the field will want to be without.



Entries include: Abandonment and Adoption in European Folk Tales, Adopted Child Syndrome, Adoptee Search Movement, Adoption Literature Sample, Africa and Adoption, Assisted Reproductive Technologies Adoption, Birthfathers, Child Welfare League of America, Chinese History and Adoption, Embryo Adoption, Gay Adoption, Grandparent Adoption, Group Adoption and Shared Motherhood, Judaism and Adoption, Medical Issues in Adoption, Orphanages, Post Adoption Services, Termination of Parental Rights, and U.S. Children's Bureau and Adoption.