Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-27T22:50:19.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Children's right to know their parents – the significance of the blood tie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Jane Fortin
Jane Fortin
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Get access

Summary

Introduction

It is increasingly common for children to be brought up in families differing greatly from the traditional unit formed by a married couple and their children. Today, society accepts that parent-child relationships can be created through adoption, fostering, reproductive technologies, unmarried birth, family breakdown and step-parenting. Indeed, the law accommodates the fact that adults caring for children may have a social relationship with them which is far more important to the children themselves than any link with their biological progenitors. Nevertheless, society shows great ambivalence over what significance to attach to the biological tie between a child and birth parents. Does the tie's existence, in itself, justify the creation of a social relationship between them where none existed before, or is it enough for the child to be given accurate information about the identity of an absent parent? Furthermore, where should the law stand in relation to a growing view that all children have a right to know the identity of their birth parents?

These questions have become increasingly important, given the law's response to the technological developments which undermine old assumptions about the legal linkage between parents and children. The increasing availability of accurate DNA testing and of reproductive technologies (commonly donor conception) are probably the two developments which have provoked most debate in this context. DNA testing has an obvious significance. In the past, ‘normal’ childhood involved children being brought up within nuclear families by those they assumed to be their biological parents.

Type
Chapter
Information
Children's Rights and the Developing Law , pp. 465 - 516
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amato, P. and Gilbreth, J. (1999) ‘Nonresident Fathers and Children's Well-being: A Meta-Analysis’ 61 Journal of Marriage and the Family557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aris, R.Harrison, C. and Humphreys, C. (2002) Safety and Child Contact: An Analysis of the Role of Child Contact Centres in the Context of Domestic Violence and Child Welfare Concerns Research Series No. 10/02, Lord Chancellor's Department.Google Scholar
Aris, R. and Harrison, C. (2007) Domestic Violence and the Supplemental Information Form C1A, Ministry of Justice Research Series 17/07, Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
,Association of Chief Officers of Probation (ACOP) (1999) Response to a Consultation Paper on Contact Between Children and Violent Parents, ACOP.Google Scholar
Bailey-Harris, R., Barron, J. and Pearce, J. (1999) ‘From Utility to Rights? The Presumption of Contact in Practice’ International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bainham, A. (1989) ‘When is a Parent not a Parent? Reflections on the Unmarried Father and his Child in English Law’ 3 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bainham, A. (2008a) ‘Arguments about Parentage’ 67 Cambridge Law Journal322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bainham, A. (2008b) ‘What is the Point of Birth Registration?’ 20 Child and Family Law Quarterly449.Google Scholar
Besson, S. (2007) ‘Enforcing the Child's Right to Know Her Origins: Contrasting Approaches Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights’ 21 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blauwhoff, R. (2008) ‘Tracing Down the Historical Development of the Legal Concept of the Right to Know One's Origins. Has “to know or not to know” Ever Been the Legal Question?’ 4 Utrecht Law Review99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bridge, C. and Swindells, H. (2003) Adoption – The Modern Law, Family Law.Google Scholar
Buchanan, A., Hunt, J., Bretherton, H. and Bream, V. (2001) Families in Conflict: Perspectives of Children and Parents on the Family Court Welfare Service, The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Cantwell, B. (2005) ‘What is Contact For?’ 35 Family Law299.Google Scholar
,Children Act Sub-Committee of the Advisory Board on Family Law (CASC) (2000) A Report to the Lord Chancellor on the Question of Parental Contact with Children in Cases Where There is Domestic Violence, LCD.
,Children Act Sub-Committee of the Advisory Board on Family Law (CASC) (2002) Making Contact Work Report of the Children Act Sub-Committee, LCD.
Collier, R. (2005) ‘Fathers 4 Justice, Law and the New Politics of Fatherhood’ 17 Child and Family Law Quarterly511.Google Scholar
Collier, R.(2006) ‘“The Outlaw Fathers Fight Back”’ in Collier, R. and Sheldon, S. (2006) Fathers' Rights Activism and Law Reform in Comparative Perspective, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Collier, R. and Sheldon, S. (2006) Fathers' Rights Activism and Law Reform in Comparative Perspective, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
,Committee on the Rights of the Child (2002) Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland CRC/C/15/Add 188, Centre for Human Rights, Geneva.Google Scholar
Conway, H. (1996) ‘Parental Responsibility and the Unmarried Father’ 146 New Law Journal782.Google Scholar
Craig, J. (2007a) (Chair) The Family Justice Council's Report and Recommendations to the President of the Family Division, ‘Everybody's Business’ – How Applications for Contact Orders by Consent Should be Approached by the Court in Cases Involving Domestic Violence.
Craig, J.(2007b) ‘Everybody's Business: Applications for Contact Orders by Consent’ 37 Family Law26.Google Scholar
Davis, G. and Pearce, J. (1999) ‘On the Trail of the Welfare Principle’ 29 Family Law144.Google Scholar
Day Sclater, S. and Kaganas, F. (2003) ‘Mothers, Welfare and Rights’ in Bainham, A., Lindley, B., Richards, A. and Trinder, L. (eds.) Children and Their Families: Contact, Rights and Welfare, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Deech, R. (1993) ‘The Rights of Fathers: Social and Biological Concepts of Parenthood’ in Eekelaar, J. and Sarcevic, P. (eds.) Parenthood in Modern Society, Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
,Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)/Department for Education and Skills/Department for Trade and Industry (2004) Cm 6273 Parental Separation: Children's Needs and Parents' Responsibilities, TSO.
,Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)/Department for Education and Skills/Department for Trade and Industry (2005) Cm 6452 Parental Separation: Children's Needs and Parents' Responsibilities: Next Steps, TSO.
,Department of Health (DH) (2007) Cm 7209 Government Response to the Report from the Joint Committee on the Human Tissue and Embryology (Draft) Bill, TSO.
,Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2006) Cm 6979 A New System of Child Maintenance, TSO.
,Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2007) Cm 7160 Joint Birth Registration: Promoting Parental Responsibility, DWP.
,Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2008) Cm 7293 Joint Birth Registration: Recording Parental Responsibility, DWP.
Detrick, S. (ed.) (1992) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Guide to the ‘Travaux Préparatoires’, Martinus Nijhoff.
Diduck, A. (2007) ‘“If Only We Can Find the Appropriate Terms to Use the Issue Will be Solved”: Law, Identity and Parenthood’ 19 Child and Family Law Quarterly458.Google Scholar
Dunn, J. (2003) ‘Contact and Children's Perspectives on Parental Relationships’ in Bainham, A., Lindley, B., Richards, A. and Trinder, L. (eds.) Children and Their Families: Contact, Rights and Welfare, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Eekelaar, J. (1998) ‘Do Parents have a Duty to Consult?’ 114 Law Quarterly Review337.Google Scholar
Eekelaar, J.(2001) ‘Rethinking Parental Responsibility’ 31 Family Law426.Google Scholar
Eekelaar, J.(2006) Family Law and Personal Life, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, M. and Whitten, S., with Arnold, N. (2006) Child Contact: Law and Practice, The Law Society.Google Scholar
Fortin, J. (1994) ‘The Gooseberry Bush Approach’ 57 Modern Law Review296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortin, J., Ritchie, C. and Buchanan, A. (2006) ‘Young Adults’ Perceptions of Court-ordered Contact' 18 Child and Family Law Quarterly211.Google Scholar
Freeman, M. (1996) ‘The New Birth Right?: Identity and the Child of the Reproductive Revolution’ International Journal of Children's Rights273.CrossRef
Freeman, T. and Richards, M. (2006) ‘DNA Testing and Kinship; Paternity, Genealogy and the Search for the “Truth” of our Genetic Origins’ in Ebtehaj, F., Lindley, B. and Richards, M. (eds.) Kinship Matters, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Furniss, C. (2000) ‘The Process of Referral to a Family Contact Centre: Policies and Practice’ 12 Child and Family Law Quarterly255.Google Scholar
Geldof, B. (2003) ‘The Real Love that Dare Not Speak its Name’ in Bainham, A., Lindley, B., Richards, A. and Trinder, L. (eds.) Children and Their Families: Contact, Rights and Welfare, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Gilmore, S. (2003) ‘Parental Responsibility and the Unmarried Father – a New Dimension to the Debate’ 15 Child and Family Law Quarterly21.Google Scholar
Gilmore, S.(2006) ‘Contact/Shared Residence and Child Well-Being: Research Evidence and its Implications for Legal Decision-Making’ 20 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilmore, S. (2008) ‘The Assumption that Contact is Beneficial: Challenging the “Secure Foundation”’ 38 Family Law1226.Google Scholar
Golombok, S.et al. (2006) ‘Non-genetic and Non-gestational Parenthood: Consequences for Parent-child Relationships and the Psychological Well-being of Mothers, Fathers and Children at Age 3’ 21 Human Reproduction1918.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gosden, N. (2003) ‘Children's Surnames – How Satisfactory is the Current Law?’ 33 Family Law186.Google Scholar
Groskop, V. and Sarler, C. (2007) ‘Do We Need to Know our Parentage?’ The Observer, August 5.
,HM Inspectorate of Court Administration (HMICA) (2005) Domestic Violence, Safety and Family Proceedings: Thematic Review of the Handling of Domestic Violence Issues by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) and the Administration of Family Courts in Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS), HMICA.
Haimes, E. (1987) ‘“Now I Know who I really am”: Identity Change and Redefinitions of the Self in Adoption’ in Honess, T. and Yardley, K. (eds.) Self and Identity, Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hale, J. (1999) ‘The View from Court 45’ 11 Child and Family Law Quarterly377.Google Scholar
Harold, G. and Murch, M. (2005) ‘Inter-parental Conflict and Children's Adaptation to Separation and Divorce: Theory, Research and Implications for Family Law, Practice and Policy’ 17 Child and Family Law Quarterly185.Google Scholar
Harrison, M. (2002) ‘Australia's Family Law Act: the First Twenty Five Years’ 16 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasan, A. (2008) ‘To Tell or Not To Tell: That is The Question’ 38 Family Law458.Google Scholar
Hester, M. (2002) ‘One Step Forward and Three Steps Back? Children, Abuse and Parental Contact in Denmark’ 14 Child and Family Law Quarterly267.Google Scholar
,HM Inspectorate of Court Administration (HMICA) (2007) Assisting Families by Court Order, HMICA.Google Scholar
Hodgkin, R. and Newell, P. (2007) Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Unicef.Google Scholar
Howe, D. and Feast, J. (2000) Adoption, Search and Reunion: The Long Term Experience of Adopted Adults, The Children's Society.Google Scholar
Hunt, J. with Roberts, C. (2004) Child Contact with Non-resident Parents, Family Policy Briefing 3, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Hunt, J. and Macleod, A. (2008) Outcomes of Applications to Court for Contact Orders After Parental Separation or Divorce, Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
Humphreys, C. and Harrison, C. (2003) ‘Focusing on Safety – Domestic Violence and the Role of Child Contact Centres’ 15 Child and Family Law Quarterly237.Google Scholar
,Joint Committee on the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill (2007) Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, Volume I, HL 169-I, HC 630-I, TSO.
Jones, D. and Ramchandani, P. (1999) Child Sexual Abuse, Radcliffe Medical Press.Google Scholar
Jones, E. and Parkinson, P. (1995) ‘Child Sexual Abuse, Access and the Wishes of Children’ 9 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaganas, F. (1996) ‘Responsible or Feckless Fathers? – Re S (Parental Responsibility)’ 8 Child and Family Law Quarterly165.Google Scholar
Kaganas, F. and Piper, C. (2002) ‘Shared Parenting – a 70% Solution?’ 14 Child and Family Law Quarterly365.Google Scholar
Kaye, M. (1996) ‘Domestic Violence, Residence and Contact’ 8 Child and Family Law Quarterly285.Google Scholar
Lind, C. (2006) ‘Evans v United Kingdom – Judgments of Solomon: Power, Gender and Procreation’ 18 Child and Family Law Quarterly576.Google Scholar
,Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) (1998) Procedures for the Determination of Paternity and on the Law on Parental Responsibility for Unmarried Fathers: A Lord Chancellor's Department Consultation Paper, LCD.
,Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) (2001) Guidelines for Good Practice on Parental Contact in Cases Where There is Domestic Violence, prepared by the Children Act Sub-Committee of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Board on Family Law, LCD.
Lowe, N. (1997) ‘The Meaning and Allocation of Parental Responsibility – A Common Lawyer's Perspective’ 11 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, N. and Douglas, G. (2007) Bromley's Family Law, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Macaskill, C. (2002) Safe Contact? Children in Permanent Placement and Contact With Their Birth Relatives, Russell House Publishing.Google Scholar
Masson, J. (2006) ‘Consent Orders in Contact Cases: A Survey of Resolution Members’ 36 Family Law1041.Google Scholar
McGee, C. (2000) Childhood Experiences of Domestic Violence, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Millbank, J. (2008) ‘The Limits of Functional Family: Lesbian Mother Litigation in the Era of the Eternal Biological Family’ 22 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neale, B., Flowerdew, J. and Smart, C. (2003) ‘Drifting Towards Shared Residence?’ 33 Family Law904.Google Scholar
Neil, E. (2003) ‘Adoption and Contact: A Research View’ in Bainham, A., Lindley, B., Richards, A. and Trinder, L. (eds.) Children and Their Families: Contact, Rights and Welfare, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Neil, E. and Howe, D. (2004) Contact in Adoption and Permanent Foster Care, BAAF.Google Scholar
O'Donovan, K. (1990) ‘What Shall We Tell the Children?’ in Lee, R. and Morgan, D. (eds.) Birthrights, Routledge.Google Scholar
,Ofsted (2008a) Ofsted's Inspection of Cafcass South East Region, Ofsted.Google Scholar
,Ofsted (2008b) Ofsted's Inspection of Cafcass East Midlands, Ofsted.Google Scholar
,Office for National Statistics (2008) Social Trends No 38, Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
,Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) (2000) The Prime Minister's Review of Adoption, Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
Perry, A. and Rainey, B. (2007) ‘Supervised, Supported and Indirect Contact Orders: Research Findings’ 21 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickford, R. (1999a) ‘Unmarried Fathers and the Law’ in Bainham, A., Day Sclater, S. and Richards, M. (eds.) What is a Parent?: A Socio-Legal Analysis, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Pickford, R. (1999b) Fathers, Marriage and the Law, Family Policy Studies Centre.Google Scholar
Probert, R. (2004) ‘Families, Assisted Reproduction and the Law’ 16 Child and Family Law Quarterly273.Google Scholar
Pryor, J. and Rodgers, B. (2001) Children in Changing Families: Life After Parental Separation, Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Reece, H. (2006) ‘UK Women's Groups’ Child Contact Campaign: “So Long as it is Safe”' 18 Child and Family Law Quarterly538.Google Scholar
Rhoades, H. (2002) ‘The “No-Contact Mother”: Reconstructions of Motherhood in the Era of the “New Father”’ 16 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhoades, H.(2006) ‘Yearning for Law: Fathers’ Groups and Family Law Reform in Australia' in Collier, R. and Sheldon, S. (2006) Fathers' Rights Activism and Law Reform in Comparative Perspective, Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Rhoades, H. and Boyd, S. (2004) ‘Reforming Custody Laws: A Comparative Study’ (2004) 18 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, B. and Pryor, J. (1998) Divorce and Separation: The Outcomes for Children, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Saunders, H. (2004) Twenty-nine Child Homicides: Lessons Still to be Learnt on Domestic Violence and Child Protection, Women's Aid Federation of England.Google Scholar
Sheldon, S. (2005) ‘Fragmenting Fatherhood: The Regulation of Reproductive Technologies’ 68 Modern Law Review523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheldon, S. (2007) ‘Unmarried Fathers and British citizenship: the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and British Nationality (Proof of Paternity) Regulations 2006’ 19 Child and Family Law Quarterly1.Google Scholar
Smart, C. (2004) ‘Equal Shares: Rights for Fathers or Recognition for Children?’ 24 Critical Social Policy484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smart, C.(2007) Personal Life, Polity Press.Google Scholar
Smart, C. and Neale, B. (1997) ‘Arguments Against Virtue: Must Contact be Enforced?’ 27 Family Law332.Google Scholar
Smart, C. and Neale, B.(1999) Family Fragments?, Polity Press.Google Scholar
Steiner, E. (2003) ‘Odièvre v France – Desperately Seeking Mother – Anonymous Births in the European Court of Human Rights’ 15 Child and Family Law Quarterly425.Google Scholar
Sturge, C. and Glaser, D. (2000) ‘Contact and Domestic Violence – the Experts’ Court Report' 30 Family Law615.Google Scholar
Trinder, L., Connolly, J., Kellett, J. and Notley, C. (2005) A Profile of Applicants and Respondents in Contact Cases in Essex, DCA Research Series 1/05, DCA.Google Scholar
Trinder, L., Connolly, J., Kellett, J., Notley, C. and Swift, L. (2006) Making Contact Happen or Making Contact Work? The Process and Outcomes of In-court Conciliation, DCA Research Series 3/06, DCA.Google Scholar
Trinder, L. and Kellett, J. (2007) The Longer-term Outcomes of In-court Conciliation, Ministry of Justice Research Series 15/07, Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
Triseliotis, J. (1973) In Search of Origins, Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Turkmendag, I., Dingwall, R. and Murphy, T. (2008) ‘The Removal of Donor Anonymity in the UK: The Silencing of Claims by Would-Be Parents’ 22 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walby, S. (2004) The Cost of Domestic Violence, Women and Equality Unit, DTI.Google Scholar
Wall, N. (2006) A Report to the President of the Family Division on the Publication by the Women's Aid Federation of England entitled “Twenty-nine child homicides: Lessons still to be learnt on domestic violence and child protection” with particular reference to the five cases in which there was judicial involvement.
Wallbank, J. (2002) ‘Clause 106 of the Adoption and Children Bill: Legislation for the “Good” Father?’ 22 Legal Studies276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallbank, J. (2004a) ‘The Role of Rights and Utility in Instituting a Child's Right to Know Her Genetic History’ 13 Social and Legal Studies245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wallbank, J.(2004b) ‘Reconstructing the HFEA 1990: Is Blood Really Thicker than Water?’ 16 Child and Family Law Quarterly387.Google Scholar
Wilson, G. (2006) ‘The Non-Resident Parental Role for Separated Fathers: A Review’ 20 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×