Nothing more than another whining infertile wishing to strip all biological parents of their constitutional rights to parent their children without government interference, in hopes of increasing the already flooded pool of children awaiting adoption.

Ms. Bartholet does an excellent job of pointing out the serious flaws in the child welfare system in this country. Instead of calling for reform of what doesn't work, she contends the whole system should be thrown out. What she seems to be trying to say is that parents are replaceable and interchangeable, and children don't greive the loss of biological or cultural attachments. Her shift from removing children from abusive or neglectful parents to removing them from those she considers sub-standard is frighteningly Orwellian. While her suggestions would certainly make the pool of adoptable children more appealing for infertile couples and singles who will settle for nothing less than the healthy white infant/toddler, it does nothing for children living with parents they love, and love them, in spite of their failings.

Love and parenting are issues far to complicated to follow her suggestion that anything less than perfection demands all ties be severed.

This book is great, because it talks about what foster care is about in the eyes of the author. I to have had my share of the juvenile courts issue. My children were removed from me on Dec. 16, 1990 by a police office not a social worker. I was charged on hearsay issues. I have always loved my children, but my mother had stolen my children because I was poor and unmarried. Now I have formed a class action against the abuse of the system.

Read this book written by a civil rights lawyer, feminist and Harvard Law professor who challenges traditional left and right poliltical perspectives on child abuse, family preservation and adoption. She is the mother of one child by birth and two by adoption who writes with power and emotion about the meaning of parenting and family.

She looks at the battered women's movement and asks why we have come to think that adult women should be liberated from abusive homes but still insist that children be kept at home pursuant to family preservation policies without regard to the level of abuse and neglect suffered.

Bartholet takes on the child welfare establishment and asks us to join her in pushing for radical rethinking of first premises. She wants our society to take adoption seriously for the first time ever, moving abused and neglected children into real homes so that they can survive and thrive. She wants to knock down the racial barriers that stand in the way of "Nobody's Children" finding the parents they need. And, finally, she points out that now is the time for reform if ever there is a time.

If you're an adoptee or birthmother, don't waste your money on this narrow-minded view of adoption. Bartholet has little to say about birthmothers! When she does mention birthmothers, she seems to view them as inconsequential baby machines. No empathy in this book!

I found Elizabeth Bartholet's view of parenting to be thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate. As the birth mother of one, this book made me want to consider adoption as a compassionate way to expand my family -- even without fertility problems as the motivation.