Publisher's Synopsis
This volume covers various medical aspects of adoption and fostering procedures, criticizes some of them and puts forward recommendations for future developments. The authors include social workers, paediatricians and psychologists, a neurologist, geneticist and gynaecologist, and the book therefore covers a broad spectrum of subjects. These include a section on general medical examinations of adoptees and the psychiatric assessment of prospective adopters, and a section on children with 'medical handicaps' (both physical and mental, and the handicaps ensuing from an unstable biological background). The final sections deals with some special issues, including inter-racial adoption, fostering for disturbed adolescents and a discussion on artificial insemination by donor, viewed as a form of adoption. This broad base makes the book valuable reading for all those involved with adoption services, from paediatricians to local authority adoption workers and adoption agency staff, and all who have more than a passing interest in the medical issues of adoption and foster care.
