Adoption of Children

The practice of adoption of children, and the terminology, existed in Scotland long before it was created as a legislative process. This chapter looks at the roots of adoption of children, in the benign informal adoption arrangements families and communities made, and in the malign money-driven practice of “baby-farming”. Demands for regulation grew after the First World War, and the Parliamentary debates on what became the Adoption of Children Act 1926 is covered in some detail. Thereafter the chapter explores all the legislative changes, bringing in forbidden degrees, damages for wrongful death and succession, this presented to show how adoption only gradually embraced the “full-transference of parenthood” model that it has today. The change throughout the 20th century from an essentially private arrangement to the end-game of public law child protection processes is analysed in some detail, especially in relation to the court’s ability to dispense with parental consent. Finally, the motivations behind the sub-adoption order, known as the Permanence Order, created in 2007, is examined.