Law Commons^™

Moving From Fad To Fundamentals: The Future Of The Evangelical Christian Adoption And Orphan Care Movement, David M. Smolin

David M. Smolin

Although the current evangelical Christian adoption and orphan care movement is less than ten years old, it has already attracted severe criticism. As an evangelical Christian and adoptive parent, I have been among the “inside critics” of the movement. The inside critique of the movement is distinctive in embracing the Christian presuppositions of the movement, while still offering objections to the theology, rhetoric, and practices associated with it.

Given the intensity and scope of my critiques, it may have been easy to misunderstand the intention as purely negative. To the contrary, however, my intention is ultimately constructive because I am …

Can The Center Hold? The Vulnerabilities Of The Official Legal Regimen For Intercountry Adoption, David M. Smolin

David M. Smolin

Amidst controversy, a legal regimen for intercountry adoption (ICA) has been developed over the past twenty-five years. The primary constituent parts are the 1989 UN-based Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Convention). Since the creation of those conventions, international and national legal efforts have focused on delineation and implementation of a set of standards based on their principles in the attempt to create a stable and reliable intercountry adoption system. This project of the creation of a stable and reliable intercountry …

Surrogacy As The Sale Of Children: Applying Lessons Learned From Adoption To The Regulation Of The Surrogacy Industry's Global Marketing Of Children, David M. Smolin

David M. Smolin

This article will argue that most surrogacy arrangements as currently practiced do constitute the “sale of children” under international law, and hence should not be legally legitimated. Hence, maintaining the core legal norm against the sale of children requires rejecting currently constituted claims of a right to procreate through surrogacy. Given the underlying purpose of all human rights law in maintaining the inherent human dignity of all human beings, a claimed legal right built upon the sale of human beings must be rejected.