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The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History pp 415–430Cite as

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The Interplay Between Infertility and Adoption in Policy and Practice in Twentieth-Century Australia

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Abstract

This chapter traces the changing relationship between infertility and adoption in mid-twentieth-century Australia. After the Second World War, the lack of babies available for adoption made the role of the adoption broker critical. This coincided with the point at which infertility came to be seen increasingly as a medical or psychological problem. In evidence before the recent Australian Inquiry into Past Adoption Practices, it was alleged that doctors and social workers were under pressure to satisfy the ‘customer’ by producing the baby when other treatments had failed, creating an environment in which single mothers came under extreme pressure to relinquish their children. This chapter explores the validity of such claims, and argues that while the power imbalances between single women, infertile couples, and the agencies which manage adoption remain unaddressed, there is no guarantee that similar injustices will not occur in the future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Parliament of Australia, Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Inquiry (Adoption Inquiry), Anonymous, Submission 123_v2, 2010–12, pp. 6–7: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2010–13/commcontribformerforcedadoption/submissions. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  2. 2.

    Australia Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices (Canberra, 2012), p. xvi.

  3. 3.

    The earlier enquiries examined the removal of Indigenous children from their families (1995–97), child migration (1997–98), and the fate of children institutionalized during the twentieth century (2003–4).

  4. 4.

    Parliament of Tasmania, Joint Select Committee Adoption and Related Services 1950–1988 (1999): http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/Ctee/reports/adopt.pdf; Parliament of New South Wales, Releasing the Past: Adoption Practices 1950–1998 (2000): https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/DBAssets/InquiryReport/ReportAcrobat/5540/Report.PDF. Both accessed 6 December 2016.

  5. 5.

    Marian Quartly, Shurlee Swain, and Denise Cuthbert, The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption (Melbourne, 2013).

  6. 6.

    Pauline Kenny, Daryl Higgins, Carol Soloff, and Reem Sweid, Past Adoption Experiences: National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices (Research Report No. 21) (Melbourne, 2012), p. 169.

  7. 7.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 223, Christine Cole, ‘Why did the Western Australian Government Apologise to Mothers, Fathers and Children Torn Apart by Adoption’, p. 5.

  8. 8.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 142_v2, Anonymous, p. 1.

  9. 9.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 106_v2, Robyn Turner, p. 1.

  10. 10.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 123_v2, Anonymous, p. 7.

  11. 11.

    Christine Cole, ‘Introduction’, in Christine Cole (ed.), Releasing the Past: Mothers’ Stories of Their Stolen Babies (Sydney, 2008), p. 2.

  12. 12.

    Adoption Inquiry Submission 129_v2–1, Sue McDonald, p. 18; Submission 223, Christine Cole, ‘Adoptions: Crown St Style and a Case Study’, p. 2; Cole, ‘Introduction’, p. 3.

  13. 13.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 123_v2, Anonymous, p. 3.

  14. 14.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 171_v2, Lizzie Brew, p. 21; Submission 83_v2, June Smith, p. 6; Cole, ‘Introduction’, p. 2.

  15. 15.

    Kenny et al, Past Adoption Experiences, p. 36.

  16. 16.

    Kenny et al, Past Adoption Experiences, p. 41.

  17. 17.

    Adoption Inquiry, Submission 14_v2, Barbara Maison, p. 5.

  18. 18.

    John Lewis, ‘Stories about the Adoption Experience in Australia’, History of Adoption Project, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, 2010: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/594669. Accessed 6 December 2016. Funded by the Australian Research Council, this project collected oral histories to complement archival sources. Its findings form the basis of Quartly, Swain and Cuthbert, The Market in Babies.

  19. 19.

    Margarete Sandelowski, ‘Fault Lines: Infertility and Imperiled Sisterhood’, Feminist Studies, 16:1 (1990), p. 42.

  20. 20.

    Margarete Sandelowski, ‘Failures of Volition: Female Agency and Infertility in Historical Perspective’, Signs, 15: 3 (1990), p. 488.

  21. 21.

    Neville Hicks, ‘This Sin and Scandal’: Australia’s Population Debate 1891–1911 (Canberra, 1978), pp. 22–3.

  22. 22.

    Hicks, ‘This Sin and Scandal’, p. 35.

  23. 23.

    ‘The Red Plague’, Argus, 13 July 1916, p. 5: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1628856. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  24. 24.

    ‘The Red Plague’, Worker, 3 January 1918, p. 9 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72189267. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  25. 25.

    ‘The Social Diseases’, Northern Star, 6 July 1933, p. 7: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94222636. Accessed 6 December 2016. For further discussion of medical responses to sterility induced by venereal disease, see Anne Hanley’s contribution to this volume.

  26. 26.

    ‘Clinics for the Childless to Boost Birthrate’, Advertiser, 15 January 1944, p. 3: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48781449; ‘Doctor’s Diary’, Western Mail, 13 January 1944, p. 15: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38547228. Both accessed 6 December 2016.

  27. 27.

    ‘“The Counsellor” Urges…’, Courier-Mail, 6 April 1944, p. 5: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42034383. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  28. 28.

    ‘Plans for Sterility Clinic at Royal Hospital’, Mercury, 15 December 1944, p. 7: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26039030; ‘Birthrate Increase’, Cairns Post, 8 May 1945, p. 3: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42452293; ‘Sterility Clinic’, Daily News, 7 July 1945, p. 28: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78788299; ‘Clinic Brings 200 Babies’, Courier-Mail, 22 August 1947, p. 1: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49325179; ‘Special New Clinic For Childless Couples’, West Australian, 22 July 1949, p. 21: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47738001. All accessed 6 December 2016.

  29. 29.

    ‘What is Happening in Your Home State’, Army News, 8 December 1944, p. 2: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article477070121945; ‘Sterility Clinic Work Favoured’, Courier-Mail, 23 November 1945, p. 1: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50253340; ‘Sterility Clinic’, Daily News, 7 July 1945, p. 28: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78788299 ‘Australia’s Birthrate’, West Australian, 3 March 1945, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44999689. All accessed 6 December 2016.

  30. 30.

    ‘Brisbane Sterility Clinic has Handled 440 Cases’, Courier-Mail, 4 May 1945, p. 3: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48949526. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  31. 31.

    ‘Sterility Clinic Opens Thursday’, Courier-Mail, 1 September 1944, p. 3: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48942248; ‘What is Happening in Your Home State’, Army News, 8 December 1944, p. 2: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article477070121945. Both accessed 6 December 2016.

  32. 32.

    ‘Advice for the Childless’, Advocate, 7 January 1948, p. 6: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69066978. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  33. 33.

    ‘Childlessness in S.A’, Advertiser, 25 July 1946, p. 8: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35706387; ‘Test-Tube Babies’, West Australian, 19 January 1948, p. 8: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46884583; ‘Will Have Second “Test Tube” Baby’, Morning Bulletin, 12 April 1948, p. 3:http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56814254. All accessed 6 December 2016.

  34. 34.

    Don Greenlees, ‘Here’s Hope for the Childless’, Argus, 7 June 1951, p, 2: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23059665. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  35. 35.

    ‘The Main Facts’, Australian Women’s Weekly, 4 September 1963, p. 44: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51972728. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  36. 36.

    Greenlees, ‘Here’s Hope for the Childless’, p. 2.

  37. 37.

    ‘Medical Mother Advises Childless Couples Not to Give up Hope’, Courier Mail, 31 July 1953, p. 7: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51092346. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  38. 38.

    ‘Australia’s First Test-Tube Baby’, Australian Women’s Weekly, 9 July 1980, pp. 4–9: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55473228. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  39. 39.

    Sandelowski, ‘Failures of Volition’, p. 491.

  40. 40.

    Rita Rhodes and Deborah Valentine, ‘Women, Motherhood, and Infertility: The Social and Historical Context’, in Deborah Valentin (ed.), Infertility & Adoption: A Guide for Social Work Practice (New York, 1988), p. 11; Naomi Pfeffer, The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine (Cambridge, 1993), p. 34.

  41. 41.

    Randi Hutter Epstein, ‘Emotions, Fertility, and the 1940s Woman’, Journal of Public Health Policy, 24: 2 (2003), p. 196.

  42. 42.

    Epstein, ‘Emotions, Fertility, and the 1940s Woman’, p. 198.

  43. 43.

    ‘Cure In Early Stages’, Sunday Times, 2 March 1941, p. 11: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59149824. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  44. 44.

    Helene Deutsch, The Psychology of Women (New York, 1949), p. 397.

  45. 45.

    Elizabeth Wyse, ‘Have you a Problem?’, New Idea, 19 September 1956, p. 32.

  46. 46.

    Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner, The Empty Cradle: Infertility in America from Colonial Times to the Present (Baltimore, MD, 1996), p. 204.

  47. 47.

    Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr., ‘Research in Causes of Variations in Fertility: Social Psychological Aspects’, American Sociological Review, 2:5 (1937), p. 682.

  48. 48.

    Ellen Herman, Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States, (Chicago, IL, and London, 2008), p. 114.

  49. 49.

    Frederick M. Hanson and John Rock, ‘The Effect of Adoption on Fertility and Other Reproductive Functions’, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 59:2 (1950), p. 317.

  50. 50.

    Eugene Weinstein, ‘Adoption and Infertility’, American Sociological Review, 27:3 (1962), p. 411; Tewes H. Wischmann, ‘Psychogenic Infertility – Myths and Facts’, Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 20:12 (2003), pp. 486–7.

  51. 51.

    Douglas W. Orr, ‘Pregnancy Following the Decision to Adopt’, Psychosomatic Medicine, 3:4 (1941), p. 442.

  52. 52.

    Richard Frank, ‘What the Adoption Worker Should Know About Infertility’, in Michael Schapiro (ed.), A Study of Adoption Practice, Volume II: Selected Scientific Papers Presented at the National Conference on Adoption, January, 1955 (New York, 1956), pp. 117–18; J. Kraus, ‘Expectancy of Fertility after Adoption’, Australian Social Work, 29:2 (1976), pp. 23–4.

  53. 53.

    ‘Clinics for the Childless to Boost Birthrate’, p. 3; ‘Doctors Differ on Husbands’, Sunday Mail, 4 July 1948, p. 5: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98324520; Greenlees, ‘Here’s Hope for the Childless’; ‘Make a Friend of Your Doctor’, Australian Women’s Weekly, 6 August 1958, p. 54: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51776275. All accessed 6 December 2016.

  54. 54.

    ‘Medical Mother Advises Childless Couples Not to Give Up Hope’, Courier-Mail, 31 July 1953, p. 7: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51092346. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  55. 55.

    ‘I Couldn’t have a Baby’, Australian Women’s Weekly, 1 September 1965, p. 14: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46239590. Accessed 6 December 2016.

  56. 56.

    Marjorie Bull, ‘About Adoption’, Australian Journal of Social Work, 20:1 (1967) p. 6.

  57. 57.

    Epstein, ‘Emotions, Fertility, and the 1940s Woman’, p. 199.

  58. 58.

    Cited in Christin Quirk, ‘Confinement and Delivery Practices in Relation to Single Women Confined at the Royal Women’s Hospital 1945–1975’. MPhil thesis, Australian Catholic University, 2011, p. 90.

  59. 59.

    ‘Clinics for Childless’, Kalgoorlie Miner, 6 December 1944, p. 1: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94806999; ‘Melbourne Sterility Clinic’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 9 January 1945, p. 3: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61943226. Both accessed 6 December 2016.

  60. 60.

    Greenlees, ‘Here’s Hope for the Childless’, p. 2.

  61. 61.

    ‘Clinic Brings 200 Babies’, p.1.

  62. 62.

    Herman, Kinship by Design, p. 114.

  63. 63.

    ‘The Main Facts’, p. 44.

  64. 64.

    ‘Medical Mother Advises Childless Couples Not to Give Up Hope’, p. 7.

  65. 65.

    Quirk, ‘Confinement and Delivery Practices’, pp. 77–8.

  66. 66.

    Dianne Gray, quoted in Quirk, ‘Confinement and Delivery Practices’, pp. 75–6.

  67. 67.

    Australia Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices, p. 164.

  68. 68.

    Australia Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices, pp. 168–9.

  69. 69.

    ‘I Couldn’t Have a Baby’, pp. 14–15.

  70. 70.

    Kenny et al, Past Adoption Experiences, p. xii.

  71. 71.

    Kenny et al, Past Adoption Experiences, p. xvi.

  72. 72.

    Kenny et al, Past Adoption Experiences, p. 93.

  73. 73.

    Kenny et al, Past Adoption Experiences, p. 169.

  74. 74.

    Australian Government National Apology for Forced Adoptions webpage, 2013: http://www.ag.gov.au/ABOUT/ForcedAdoptionsApology/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed 6 December 2016.

Research Resources

Primary Sources

    Websites

    Testimony Relating to Forced Adoptions

    Published Sources On Adoption as a Cure for Infertility

    • Marjorie Bull, ‘About Adoption’, Australian Journal of Social Work, 20:1 (1967), 2–8.

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    • Richard Frank, ‘What the Adoption Worker Should Know About Infertility’, in Michael Schapiro (ed.), A Study of Adoption Practice, Volume II: Selected Scientific Papers Presented at the National Conference on Adoption, January, 1955 (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1956), 113–8.

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    • Frederick M. Hanson and John Rock, ‘The Effect of Adoption on Fertility and Other Reproductive Functions’, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 59:2 (1950), 311–20.

      Article  Google Scholar 

    • J. Kraus, ‘Expectancy of Fertility after Adoption’, Australian Social Work, 29:2 (1976), 19–24.

      Article  Google Scholar 

    • Douglas W. Orr, ‘Pregnancy Following the Decision to Adopt’, Psychosomatic Medicine, 3:4 (1941), 441–6.

      Article  Google Scholar 

    • Eugene Weinstein, ‘Adoption and Infertility’, American Sociological Review, 27:3 (1962), 408–12.

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    On Psychogenic Infertility

    • Leonard S Cottrell, Jr., ‘Research in Causes of Variations in Fertility: Social Psychological Aspects’, American Sociological Review, 2:5 (1937), 678–85.

      Article  Google Scholar 

    • Helene Deutsch, The Psychology of Women (New York: Grune & Stratton, 1949).

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      • Neville Hicks, ‘This Sin and Scandal’: Australia’s Population Debate 1891–1911 (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1978).

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      • Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner, The Empty Cradle: Infertility in America from Colonial Times to the Present (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).

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      Authors and Affiliations

      1. Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

        Shurlee Swain

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      1. Shurlee Swain
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      Editors and Affiliations

      1. School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

        Gayle Davis

      2. Department of History, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, UK

        Tracey Loughran

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      Swain, S. (2017). The Interplay Between Infertility and Adoption in Policy and Practice in Twentieth-Century Australia. In: Davis, G., Loughran, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_22

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      • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_22

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