Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion (Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies)

This book critically analyses the way in which traditional sociocultural and legal biases might be perpetuated against those with unknown – or unknowable – genetic ancestries. It looks to law and works of literature across differing eras and genres focussing upon such concepts as inherited stigma, illegitimacy, orphanisation, adoption, othering, reunion, and the ‘right’ to access truths that relate to one’s original identity. Law’s role in such matters is often limited (or usurped) by custom, practice, or lingering superstitious beliefs; the importance of oral and written testimony is therefore highlighted. Characters include abandoned or orphaned figures from folk and fairy tales, Romantic and Victorian monsters and heroes, Dickensian waifs, Edwardian rescue orphans, and dystopia-set ‘rebels.‘ Their insights and experiences are mirrored in various present day scenarios that speak to familial human rights abuses, not least forced adoptions and bars on accessing original information. This cross-disciplinary book drawing on Law, Literature, Sociology, Critical Adoption Studies should be of interest to those interested in and those who have been affected in some way by adoption, origin deprivation, or reunion. Contents 7 1 Introduction 9 Works Cited 15 2 Customs and ‘Laws’ of Orphanisation: Bastards and Foundlings in Folklore and Fairy Tale 18 2.1 Introduction 18 2.2 Illegitimacy: Terra Filius and ‘Witnesses of Wickedness’ 21 2.3 Protection Against Others and Othering: Fear of the ‘Changeling’ 32 2.4 Double-edged Ever-afters and Uncertain Step-[m]otherings: ‘Fairy Tale’ Endings and Warnings 40 2.5 Conclusion 52 Works Cited 55 3 Monsters, Heroes, Waifs, and a ‘Witch’ 60 3.1 Introduction 60 3.2 Monstrous Others: Familial Rejections, Failed Reunions, Absent Laws 64 3.3 Faeries and Witches again: Jane Eyre as Othered—But Magical—Heir 70 3.4 Dickensian Orphans, and Foundlings: Critiques of Law and Policy 77 3.5 Conclusion 89 Works Cited 91 4 Adoption’s ‘Golden Age’: From Orphan Rescue to the Rights of the Child 95 4.1 Introduction 95 4.2 Orphan(ised) Girls and ‘Lost’ Boys: The Need for Gratitude 99 4.3 Gardens as Homeplace and Warning 107 4.4 Legal Frameworks: A Right to Avoid Otherness? 118 4.5 Conclusion 129 Works Cited 132 5 Legal Fictions, Dystopian Truths: [Re]Writing Family Life Rights 136 5.1 Introduction 136 5.2 Traditional Folkloric Fears, Dystopian Law-making 139 5.3 Othering and Orphanisation: De facto Foundlings 143 5.4 (M)otherhood and Substitutive Care: Searches for (Uncomfortable) Truths 151 5.5 Reunions, Rights, and Other Myths 159 5.6 Ireland’s Dystopic Laws and Customs: Re-defining Sanctuary, Falling Short of Elsewhere? 165 5.7 Conclusion 175 Works Cited 183 Index 187