As If Kids Mattered: What's Wrong in the World of Child Protection and Adoption

"As If Kids Mattered" is a remarkably comprehensive and clear-eyed portrait of child welfare and adoption in North America. Marlene Webber, a respected writer on social issues and also an adoptive parent, traveled the continent, meeting modern adoptive families and learning their stories. The result is an illuminating, often inspiring portrait of adoption that redefines family for our times. It also indicts the philosophy and practices of child protection and placement. Webber documents the adversity and prejudices that would-be adopters face and the emotional and physical toil adoptable children suffer while stalled in the antiquated labyrinth of government care. "As If Kids Mattered" calls for dramatic and immediate change -- for the children's sake.In this book Marlene Webber provides comprehensive understanding of what family and adoption means to individuals and addresses the adoption system itself -- the public agencies responsible for protecting children and placing them in permanent homes. She exposes a system in deep trouble, one that is failing miserably to meet the needs of potential adoptive parents and, most tragically, the needs of the children.