Heart Work and Hard Choices
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The Market In Babies
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The Market In Babies
Stories of Australian Adoption
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£17.99
Regular price
£23.99
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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.
Denise Cuthbert is currently Dean of the School of Graduate Research at RMIT. She has a longstanding interest in adoption and family formation and has published on the experiences of nonAboriginal women who adopted and fostered Aboriginal children. In her recent work on the history of adoption in Australia, Denise has published widely on the politics and philosophy of adoption policy. In 2009 she coedited, with Ceridwen Spark, Other People’s Children: Adoption in Australia (Melbourne: Scholarly Publishing)., Marian Quartly holds the position of Professor Emerita at Monash University’s School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies. She has published for many years in the area of Australian history, with special reference to the history of the family and gender relations. Her current research concerns are the history of women’s activism and the history of family in late twentieth century Australia., Shurlee Swain is a Professor at the Australian Catholic University. She has published widely in the history of women and children, with a particular interest in the impact of welfare on individual lives. Her publications in this area include Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia (1996), Confronting Cruelty (2002), Child, Nation, Race and Empire (2010), and Born in Hope: A History of the Early Years of the Family Court of Australia (2012). Currently Professor Swain is the historian chief investigator on the National Find & Connect Web Resource project.
- ISBN-13
- 9781921867866
- Publisher
- Monash University Publishing
- Imprint
- Monash University Publishing
- Publication date
- 1 November 2013
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 200
- Dimensions
- 234 x 153 mm
- Language
- English
