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| Jane |
Adam Pertman’s Adoption
Nation: (second edition) is a grateful adoptive parent’s accolade to adoption disguised
as a treatise. Pertman is the often quoted Executive Director of
the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute,
but he doesn’t get it when it comes to birth mothers. As in the first edition, Pertman gives lip service to first/birth mothers’ pain but quickly diverts the readers’ attention to the stories of a handful of women who become “true believers in adoption” with “no regrets.” As a first mother reading this book, I could not forget that Pertman is an adoptive father of two.
but he doesn’t get it when it comes to birth mothers. As in the first edition, Pertman gives lip service to first/birth mothers’ pain but quickly diverts the readers’ attention to the stories of a handful of women who become “true believers in adoption” with “no regrets.” As a first mother reading this book, I could not forget that Pertman is an adoptive father of two.
Pertman minimizes the pressures and in some cases the
outright corruption which cause mothers in the United States and abroad to lose
their children. In his zest for all things adoption, he ignores the opinion of
recognized child welfare experts--including that of his employer, the Donaldson
Institute, that “”Every society, including our own, accepts that it is
generally in the best interests of children to be raised by their biological
parents unless they cannot or do not wish to.“*
