Compassionate thinking

I was pleased to read the Listener’s feature article (“The ties that bind”, August 13) on adoption as I believe there is a lot still to be addressed. As the sister of an adoptee and the mother of an adopted son, adoption has had a big impact on my life.

With current changes to abortion law in the United States, it is clear there is a worldwide movement to turn back the clock on women’s rights.

Before the mid-1970s and the advent of the domestic purposes benefit, the attitude towards a young woman who found herself “in trouble” was that she deserved to be punished. Her education was terminated and she was left without support and banished, usually to a Salvation Army home. She bore the child in secret — a secret she was expected to keep for the rest of her life.

Adopting parents were usually infertile and well-meaning, delighted with the chance to form a family, and the child was much loved. But adopting a child to non-biological parents is like grafting a peach branch on to an apple tree. The child may feel very different, as if they don’t fit in. And no wonder. They are indeed different and there is nothing a loving