Minimum Age Difference as a Requisite for Adoption

Recent incidents of abortive uses of adoption statutes have pointed up the possible need for a healthy change in our adoption laws: the inclusion of a required age difference between adopter and adoptee. The author urges that such a statutory requirement is necessary to more fully effectuate the idea that adoption imitates nature, a postulate of adoption law originating in Roman jurisprudence and, so the author contends, underlying adoption law in this country. The article raises interesting questions concerning the very nature of adoption, the function which it serves in our society, and the possible policy differences between minor and adult adoptions

Minimum Age Difference as a Requisite for Adoption

Recent incidents of abortive uses of adoption statutes have pointed up the possible need for a healthy change in our adoption laws: the inclusion of a required age difference between adopter and adoptee. The author urges that such a statutory requirement is necessary to more fully effectuate the idea that adoption imitates nature, a postulate of adoption law originating in Roman jurisprudence and, so the author contends, underlying adoption law in this country. The article raises interesting questions concerning the very nature of adoption, the function which it serves in our society, and the possible policy differences between minor and adult adoptions