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The Market in Children: Stories of Australian Adoption (Australian Studies)
The Market in Children Stories of Australian Adoption - Australian Studies Author:Marian Quartly, Shurlee Swain, Denise Cuthbert The Market in Children: 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 twenty-first. The authors find that a market in children has long existed. In the early years supply outstripped demand; needy children were hard to place. Mid-twen... more »tieth century demand and supply 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 buying babies in the surrogacy markets of India and the United States. As the rate of adoptions in Australia falls to a historic low, and parliaments across the country are apologising to parents and children 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 for children is allowed to flourish. The authors of The Market in Children are long-established scholars expert in the history of the family, welfare history and the making of public policy in Australia.« less