Past adoption practices: Key messages for service delivery responses and current policies

This chapter draws from the findings of the report Past Adoption Experiences: The National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices, released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in August 2012 (Kenny, Higgins, Soloff, & Sweid , 2012). Here we examine the nature of identity and connection through the lens of the study participants' lived experiences of past adoptions, and the subsequent effects on the formation of "self" within these constructs, including barriers and enablers. We then explore the influence of these experiences on the participants' views about family formation and composition as they relate to the current climate of adoption, donor conception and surrogacy, as well as permanent care arrangements in the child protection system. This chapter provides an opportunity to reflect the voices of those who took part in the research, particularly of those who were adopted as children, and what they saw as being integral to current policy discussions in these domains, as they view themselves as the living results of a past "social experiment".