In the Best Interests of the Child

Based on her experience as an expert witness in court proceedings on adoption in Israel, and through four representative case studies, Mass examines the view that emphasizes the lifelong loss inflicted on the child by compulsory `closed' adoption, contrasting it with the need to `free the child for adoption' when parents are assessed as incapable.

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Marshalling her experience as an expert witness in court proceedings on non-consensual, confidential adoption in Israel, Mass describes legal proceedings following the Israeli state petition that declares children eligible for adoption because of alleged parental incapability, and explores the politics of state intervention in the parent/child relationship. The selected case studies present the testimonies of the children, the parents, the designated adoptive parents, and the state’s representatives, as well as the author’s own testimony.