About This Book
This book examines the adoption process in the United States, asking whether the process provides sufficient protection for children. It deals specifically with independent adoptions—that is, outside of social agencies, through a process in which would-be adoptive parents secure the children either directly from their natural parents or relatives, or through intermediaries such as physicians or lawyers who know of the natural parents’ interest in giving up their children. It details a follow-up investigation with families made during 1956 and 1957 around the time the adopted children were about ten years old.