A child for keeps?

by Jenny Keating

This history of adoption in the first half of the twentieth century concentrates on the interwar years and the Second World War. It looks at the growing popularity of adoption after 1918 and the formation of adoption societies during the 1920s. These led the pressure for the legalisation of adoption, which had no official status prior to 1926. Keating charts how the first adoption law only made adoption legal, but did not regulate it, and how the 1930s saw a growing campaign for reform because of the casual and even abusive practices of some of those organising adoptions. Legislation was passed but delayed by the onset of war and the new regulations were not brought in until 1943 when the Government could no longer ignore the widespread informal adoption of the illegitimate babies of single women, and wives whose husbands were away. The backdrop to the book is the increasing emphasis on secrecy in adoption, providing fresh insights as to why the current system is as rigid as it is.