The Older, Handicapped, Adoptable Child Case Study of Six Children Under Care of the Adoption Unit of Catholic Social Service in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, California
Abstract
For most adults, parenthood affords the highest satisfaction and fulfillment. A child brings to a family an emotional equilibrium, a means of self-expression, and an extension into the future. Parents need the child as much as the child needs the parents. Being a father or a mother is a social experience without parallel or substitute. The legal substitute for a true parent-child relationship is adoption. In everyday speech the term "adoption” is used to cover a wide variety of situations. It has often applied when a child is taken into the family and brought up by that family. It has been referred to also in recent years by people talking of ”adopting” a European war refugee or orphan when what they meant is that they have contributed to the child’s support. These situations, however, are not real adoptions in the legal sense. The writer wishes to be precise in her use of the word adoption which implies permanence of legal custody and full family membership.
Subject Area
Law|Social research|Social work
Recommended Citation
Pucci, Edna, "The Older, Handicapped, Adoptable Child Case Study of Six Children Under Care of the Adoption Unit of Catholic Social Service in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, California" (1954). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30670821.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30670821
