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Birth parents will soon be able to trace their adopted children through intermediaries. But how many will want to? Julia Feast, John Triseliotis, and Fiona Kyle evaluate their study's results [...]

viewpoint The new Adoption and Children Act is the successful culmination of many years campaigning, writes Julia Feast News is not usually good news in social care. One doesn't have [...]

viewpoint The Adoption and Children Bill fails to address the needs of adopted adults and their birth relatives, writes Julia Feast Last month the Department of Health issued a consultation [...]

The law needs to be changed to allow people born as a result of donor-assisted conception to learn about their background, argues Julia Feast, not just for reasons of openness, [...]

Children's agencies and post-adoption counsellors must assess individual cases when deciding whether to help a mother find her adoptive child. The rights of the adoptive child must remain the most important focus in such cases. The UK-based Children's Society deals with parents seeking children who were given up for adoption, although a national intermediary service is not standard throughout the country.

Issues are presented concerning the national standards published by the Department of Health into the treatment of birth parents who have given children up for adoption. The ability of adopted children to contact birth parents is discussed.

The debate about the information needs of donor-conceived people is reaching an important stage. The recent Government consultation about providing information on sperm, egg and embryo donors (Department of Health, 2001) has meant that the subject is receiving much public attention. More importantly, it is becoming increasingly evident that donorconceived people themselves are beginning to have a voice about their experience of not being able to access basic information about their genealogical heritage. Gollancz (2001) raised some pertinent issues about the rights and needs of donor-conceived people to have access to identifying information about their genetic parents. Recent research is also providing powerful messages about the information needs of donor-conceived people. For example, the study by Turner and Coyle (2000) of 16 donor-conceived adults between the ages of 26 and 55 asked about identity experience, including issues of secrecy and disclosure of their donor-conceived status, and also investigated the experience of trying to trace and search for a genetic father (the donor), the current perception of donor insemination and how families could manage openness versus secrecy. The findings identify many similarities between adopted and donor-conceived people. But in what ways is adoption similar to donor conception? And can donor conception learn anything from adoption? This paper will explore some of the relevant lessons learned from adoption to draw out some of the issues, experiences and dilemmas shared by adopted people, donor-conceived people and their families, using the findings of The Children's Society's research study.

Derek Kirton, Julia Feast and David Howe Report on findings from qualitative interviews with transracially adopted adults, carried out as part of a research project by The Children's Society. Findings show that those adopted transracially shared many experiences with other adopted people, including almost invariably feeling that they have gained from searching and/or reunion. For many transracially adopted people, issues of racial and ethnic identity figured prominently within motivation for searching, but their needs and aspirations in this regard often went unmet. Finally, the implications of the research for family placement work and post-adoption services are considered.

In July 1991 The Children's Society revised its policies to provide a more active service to the birth relatives of adopted people. Julia Feast and Janet Smith consider some of the issues and dilemmas which arise when agencies decide to act as intermediaries for birth family members wanting information about or contact with adopted adult relatives.

In Adoption & Fostering 17 2, Julia Feast and Janet Smith considered some of the issues raised by The Children's Society's intermediary service for birth relatives. Here they describe how they have evaluated this work, and how it has influenced The Children's Society's policies and procedures.

As part of its work with adopters, adopted people and their birth relatives, the Children's Society Post-adoption and Care Counselling Research Project is engaged in a number of studies looking at adopted people's experiences of seeking background information and contact with birth relatives. Between 1988 and 1995, project workers provided advice and counselling beyond initial contact to 366 adopted people seeking information and possible reunion with a birth relative. In the following study, Julia Feast and David Howe analysed the agency's file records to determine the numbers and characteristics of adopted people who sought help from the project's counsellors. Findings are presented about the demographic characteristics of the adopted adults, their reasons for wanting the service, the type of contact established with a birth relative and the quality of relationship with their adoptive parents.