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The Market In Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption

monograph
posted on 2020-08-19, 00:09 authored by Marian Quartly, Shurlee Swain, Denise Cuthbert
The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption tells the history of adoption in Australia from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to its decline at the beginning of the twentyfirst. The authors find that a market in babies has long existed. In the early years supply outstripped demand: needy babies were hard to place. Midtwentieth century supply and demand grew together, with adoption presented as the perfect solution to two social problems: infertility and illegitimacy. Supply declined in the 1970s and demand turned to new global markets. Now these markets are closing, but technology provides new opportunities and Australians are acquiring babies through the surrogacy markets of India and the United States. As the rate of adoptions in Australia falls to an historic low, and parliaments across the country are apologising to parents and adoptees for the pain caused by past practices, this book identifies an historical continuum between the past and the present, and challenges the view that the best interests of the child can ever be protected in an environment where the market in babies is allowed to flourish. The authors of The Market in Babies are longestablished scholars expert in the history of the family, welfare history and the making of public policy in Australia.

History

Paperback ISBN

9781921867866

e-PDF ISBN

9781921867873

e-pub ISBN

9781925377958

Mobi ISBN

9781925377965

Pages total

178

Size

234mm x 153mm

Series

Australian History

Publisher

Monash University Publishing

Print publication date

1/11/2013