EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND. This book explores how children's rights are weighed against parents' rights in a range of countries, and examines how governments and legal and welfare professionals balance those rights following the decision that children cannot grow up in their parents' care.

Introducing the field of adoption from care ~ Tarja Poesoe, Marit Skivenes and June Thoburn Part I: Adoption from care in risk-oriented child protection systems Adoption from care in England: learning from experience ~ June Thoburn Overcoming the Soviet legacy? Adoption from care in Estonia ~ Katre Luhamaa and Judit Stroempl Adoption of children from state care in Ireland: in whose best interests? ~ Kenneth Burns and Simone McCaughren Adoption from care: policy and practice in the United States ~ Jill Duerr Berrick Part II: Adoption from care in family service-oriented child protection systems Adoption from care in Austria ~ Jenny Krutzinna and Katrin Kriz Adoption from care in Finland: currently an uncommon alternative to foster care ~ Pia Eriksson and Tarja Poesoe Adoption from care in Germany: inconclusive policy and poorly coordinated practice ~ Thomas Meysen and Ina Bovenschen Adoption from care in Norway ~ Hege Stein Helland and Marit Skivenes Adoption from care in Spain ~ Sagrario Segado, Ana Cristina Gomez Aparicio and Esther Abad Guerra Part III: Human rights platform and ways of belonging International human rights law governing national adoption from care ~ Katre Luhamaa and Conor O'Mahony Creating 'family' in adoption from care ~ Jenny Krutzinna Understanding attachment in decisions on adoption from care in Norway ~ Hege Stein Helland and Sveinung Hellesen Nygard The adoptive kinship network: issues around birth family contact in adoption ~ June Thoburn Making sense of adoption from care in very different contexts ~ Tarja Poesoe, Marit Skivenes and June Thoburn

"This book takes the reader beyond national boundaries by analysing how adoption from care is conceived and practised in different Western countries. More importantly, the book helps to overcome mental boundaries around adoption, a child protection alternative that is as complex as it is necessary." Jesús Palacios, University of Seville