Ethics in Adoption
Check out some of Pact’s most timely and popular publications. For permission to reprint or repost, please contact Beth Hall at beth@pactadopt.org.
Book Review: The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States by Kit Myers reviewed by Kerry Woodward April 2025 The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States, by Kit Myers (University of California Press, 2025), is a...
Book Review: Adopting Privilege: A Memoir of Reinventing My Adoptee Narrative by Abigail K. Hasberry, Ph.D. reviewed by Katie Wynen April 2025 Content warning: This review includes reference to sexual abuse. “My story is complex and profound, both ugly and beautiful...
by Zabrina Aleguire This article is adapted from a keynote address delivered at Pact Family Camp 2024. Scrolling TikTok, I saw a video of a fire sergeant getting a call that a healthy baby had been left at the station in a bassinet--a Safe Haven relinquishment that...
Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson (St. Martin's Press, 2024) reviewed by Michele Rabkin Relinquished by Gretchen Sisson is essential reading--and will likely be deeply unsettling for adoptive parents...
by Parker Dockray and Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander 2017 Mother’s Day can bring fraught feelings for many of us. This is particularly true for mothers touched by adoption, whether as first/birth mothers or as adoptive mothers, because for both groups there remains...
by Kathleen Neilsen 2015 Choice is treasured in our society. From what we eat, to where we shop, to what we watch on television, Americans value having options. Some hypothesize that this value is associated with being members of a capitalist society. Regardless of...
by Rosalio Chavoya 2018 In July 2018, Rosalio Chavoya shared his experiences with the child welfare and criminal justice systems as a guest speaker at Pact Family Camp West. The perspective of the father is often ignored or neglected when talking about foster care and...
by Malaika Parker 2014 Shadism (a preference or privilege based on lighter over darker skin tones) is a conversation that gets directly to the heart of racism and its roots. In an effort to fight against these preferences and privileges, Pact does not engage in...
by Beth Hall 2014 At Pact, we get many calls from families asking about the possibility of connecting with their children’s birth parents. When adoptive parents consider opening their child’s adoption with one or more birth family members while that child is still a...
by Gretchen Sisson, PhD 2019 The decisions women make about pregnancy and childbearing are often the subject of intense political scrutiny and debate. Frequently, these conversations present adoption as a panacea for social challenges of all stripes, including teen...
by Michele Rabkin 2016 As Mother’s Day approaches, you may be shopping for greeting cards. You can easily find a card for your mother, your grandmother, your mother-in-law, or for that special woman who has been “like a mother” to you. What you can’t find is one for...
by Beth Hall Originally published 2011, updated 2022 This essay is adapted from my closing comments at Pact Family Camp. While I recognize that the Pact community includes adoptees, parents who have placed children for adoption, extended family members, adoption...