BAAF Health Group conference 2008 — A child's Family Health Legacy

Palmer, Helen

doi:10.1177/030857590803200413

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Unlike the healthy infants of the past, contemporary adoptees are likely to have experienced abuse or neglect and have complex physical, emotional, developmental, and educational needs 5. In turn their birth parents are likely to have experienced physical ill health, mental illness, learning disability or substance abuse 6. These factors powerfully influence a child’s future health.…”

Section: Adoption Past and Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An adoptive parent summed this up: “Relevant medical and lifestyle background of birth parents is extremely important to adoptive parents. We have to parent the children that we adopt and can only do so if we are aware of all the facts, otherwise we are parenting in the dark” 6. While the future development and health of any child is uncertain and adoptive parents are trained to deal with such uncertainty, it would seem a reasonable goal to share family history information, where it exists, that may be relevant to the child’s current or future health.…”

Section: Importance Of Family History In Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent survey of 57 adoption experiences reported that medical history was available for <50% of birth fathers 6. While medical advisors will not have direct access to parental medical records, they will invariably have access to family medical and social history from diverse indirect sources including the child’s medical and social care records.…”

Section: Access To Family History In Contemporary Adoption Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Family history and adoption in the UK: conflicts of interest in medical disclosure

Hill

Wheeler²,

Merredew³

et al. 2009

Archives of Disease in Childhood

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Section: Adoption Past and Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Importance Of Family History In Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Access To Family History In Contemporary Adoption Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Family history and adoption in the UK: conflicts of interest in medical disclosure

Hill

Wheeler²,

Merredew³

et al. 2009

Archives of Disease in Childhood

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“…The exception to this rule is where sharing of this information could be interpreted as being 'in the public interest', although it is unclear as to what this constitutes in this particular circumstance. Agency medical advisers are regularly faced with the dilemma of being in possession of important information about birth families but of lacking explicit consent to share this information with prospective adopters (Palmer, 2008). The aim of this survey was to furnish the debate with an important missing dimension, namely the perspective of adopters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth Family Health History: Adopters' Perspectives on Learning about their Child's Health Inheritance

Hill

Edwards

2009

Adoption & Fostering

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Birth family health history is shared with prospective adopters to help them understand a child's future health risks. But guidelines for health professionals indicate that such third-party information should not be shared without the consent of birth parents. In practice this can be difficult to achieve. Catherine Hill and Maria Edwards' survey of 57 adoptions sought to explore the views and experiences of adopters about the value of this information to both themselves and their child. Absence of information, particularly with respect to paternal history, was common and resulted in adverse consequences for children and an impoverished sense of identity. Adopters felt that lack of information also limited their understanding of the child and therefore their ability to offer therapeutic parenting; they were ‘parenting in the dark’. A majority expressed strong views that it was their child's right to have this information; a minority felt that confidentiality of birth family health information should remain a paramount consideration. These data furnish the debate with an important missing dimension from those whose lives are potentially enriched or impaired by the quality of information shared.

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“…A joint position statement with the British Society of Human Genetics was issued, urging caution 3. Despite this, the annual health group conference of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering in October 2008 revealed that the practice continues 4 5. Examples were cited of children born to white mothers being labelled by clinicians as ‘looking Asian’ or ‘having unusual pigmentation’ and that DNA tests were ordered to determine their ancestry so that the children could then be placed with adoptive parents who where ‘ethnically’ matched.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%