Child adoption : the ideas behind modern legislation

Abstract

Adoption is an institution as old as civilization itself. It has had its ups and downs in legislation but no legal system has ignored it always and completely. Whether the motivation was childlessness, the wish for an heir, pity, or any other human situation or feeling, it seems that adoption has always found its way into the various social set-ups. The study of adoption is, therefore, bound to give an interesting insight into human psychology and behaviour, the more so since adoption touches on such fundamental human relations as parenthood and sonship. It tries to provide for them a substitute, more or less genuine. The results of man's attempts at such a substitution throughout the ages range from caricature to what has been described a success. [excerpt]