EVIDENCE OF SYSTEMIC VIOLATION OF SINGLE PARENTS RIGHTS
Part 3
Profit and Punishment: WHY They Coerced Us to Surrender Our
Babies
Market Demand:
“ Because there are many more married couples wanting
to adopt newborn white babies than there are babies, it
may almost be said that they rather than out of wedlock
babies are a social problem. (Sometimes social workers in
adoption agencies have facetiously suggested setting up
social provisions for more 'babybreeding'.)”SOCIAL
WORK AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS, National Association of Social
Workers, (Out-of-print) copyright 1964
“ Lawyer Karen Lane admits that private adoption can
smack of ‘buying babies’ .”Born Losers,
p.151, by L. Carlangelo
“ Vincent also emphasized that his study was made in
a location where, and at a time when, a demand for white adoptable
infants existed. He suggested that: ‘If this demand were
absent, the unwed mothers who now score high in personality
scales measuring, e.g., socialization, maturity, and responsibility,
might very possibly be more inclined to assume the responsibility
of rearing their illegitimate children.’ ”THE
UNMARRIED MOTHER - HER DECISION REGARDING ADOPTION, Barbara
Hansen Costigan, 1964 Dissertation, University of Southern
California
“. . . babies born out of wedlock [are] no longer
considered a social problem . . . white, physically healthy
babies are considered by many to be a social boon . . .
”(i.e. a valuable commodity..). - Social Work and
Social Problems (1964), National Association of Social Workers.
Punishment:
“. . . society has seemed more interested in punishing
the unwed mother and her illegitimate child than in understanding
the social, economic, and psychological forces which have
placed them in a deviant social position.” The
Unwed Mother, edited by Robert W. Roberts, (Harper
& Row) copyright 1966
“‘The father plays absolutely no part
in this. That is part of her rehabilitation. When she
renounces her child for its own good, the unwed mother
has learned a lot. She has learned an important human
value. She has learned to pay the price of her misdemeanor,
and this alone, if punishment is needed, is punishment
enough... ’ Dr Hillard echoes the beliefs of
the social workers and the agencies dealing with unwed
mothers, though hers have come to her privately. And
she, like the other authorities, though refusing to
blame the girl’s home, lays the remedy right on
its doorstep… ‘We must go back to a primary
set of values and the discipline that starts with the
very small child,’ says Dr. Hilliard.”
(Dr. Marion Hilliard of Women's College Hospital,
as quoted in the Toronto Telegram, November 22, 1956)
“ If the demand for adoptable babies continues
to exceed the supply then it is quite possible that,
in the near future, unwed mothers will be ‘punished’
by having their children taken from them right after
birth. A policy like this would not be executed -- nor
labeled explicitly -- as ‘punishment.’ Rather,
it would be implemented through such pressures and labels
as ‘scientific findings,’ ‘the best interests
of the child,’ ‘rehabilitation of the unwed
mother,’ and ‘the stability of the family
and society.’” Unmarried Mothers, by
Clark Vincent (1961)
Trimming the Welfare Rolls:
“ To the Province generally the
great advantage and economy of the Adoption Act can
be realized when it is stated that many of the children
before their adoption were costing five and six dollars
a week for maintenance.”- 35th Report of the
Superintendent of Neglected and Dependent Children (Ontario,
1928)
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