Surrenders, Adoptions, and Dilemmas in the Field of Organisms intended for Childhood

• Autor(a) principal: Villalta, Carla
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Estudos Feministas
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ref/article/view/S0104-026X2011000100008

In this article we analyze the different debates and dilemmas outlined by the socalled“direct surrenders” in the field of institutions and agents responsible for granting theadoption of children. This term designates the surrender that mothers or other members of thebiological family make of their children to other people for their adoption. To account for themeanings currently associated to these practices, on one hand, we describe and analyze theprocess through which the surrender of children performed by public deed was suppressed byArgentine legislation. On the other hand, we focus on the analysis of legal adoption cases ofchildren who were directly surrendered by their mothers and/or families of origin. Through thisanalysis, we examine the ways assumed by governmental intervention whenever the aim is toprotect a population deemed “vulnerable” and to fight “children trafficking”. This investigationleads to explore the dilemma represented by child adoption in a society engulfed by deepsocial inequities, and to meditate on which are the “rights” acknowledged to those women forwhom the surrender of a child in adoption constitutes an option within a limited range ofpossibilities.