Family Bonds: Adoption and the Politics of Parenting

After suffering 10 frustrating years of infertility treatments and various obstacles to adoption, Harvard law professor Bartholet, a divorced mother of a grown son, finally succeeded in adopting two Peruvian infant boys now four and seven--children ``clearly meant for me.'' In this engrossing account addressed both to women undergoing often futile, costly infertility treatments and to those fighting to adopt children, she eloquently advocates making international adoptions more available by reforming legal systems, as well as by screening and racial matching policies. The author further favors access to sealed birth records. Although she affirms that adoption is an honorable, ``positive alternative to biologic parenting,'' she also notes that ``parenting should not imply that the parent owns the child's affections or has a right to exclude alternative relationships.'' (May)