The jurisprudence of good parenting: The selection of adoptive parents, 1894-1964

Throughout the twentieth century, adoption agencies, "public" and "private" alike, have exercised public power--virtually unfettered by courts and legislatures--to create nonbiological families. This dissertation examines the standards for adoptive parents described in the professional literature of adoption agencies during the first two-thirds of the century. These standards constituted a model of parenting that was approved in principle and in practice by agencies of state government--becoming, in effect, a government standard for the "ideal" family: a jurisprudence of good parenting.;During the first quarter of the twentieth century, adoption professionals were only beginning to establish common standards and practices. The standards they established were straightforward, easily observable, and directly related to the welfare of the child. But between the 1920s and mid-1960s, the focus of agency attention shifted from promoting child welfare to promoting a particular vision of the "ideal" family. This involved, first of all, a concerted effort to create adoptive families on the model of the "normal" biological family. Secondly, it involved a newly intrusive inquiry into the psychological lives of the applicants, to ensure that they conformed to the prevailing ideal of emotional "normalcy." In sum, adoption agencies at mid-century are best understood not as protectors of the welfare of parentless children, but as guardians of a conventional (white, middle-class) definition of family.;Finally, in terms of public policy and law, enforcement of a singular vision of the "ideal" family not only is a misguided way to protect children, but also violates some of the most cherished values of our legal and constitutional system.