The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered Review & Ratings

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The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered Review

I purchased this book because I am an Adoptee Rights Advocate. As the laws Adoptee Rights Advocates are concerned about were *originally* shaped by an effort to cover up illegitimacy, it behooves me to read anything that might educate me on the history and laws of illegitimacy, especially those that shaped law in the U.S.
This is an excellent and well researched book. It was information-packed and I found myself having to stop and re-read certain portions several times to absorb it all.
As educational as it was, I found myself disagreeing with the final chapter. I do not think that adoption, abortion, and illegitimacy are as directly related as people generally tend to think. I do not think that adoption is a solution to issues that cause women to choose or consider abortion. I do not think that illegitimacy and out of wedlock birth are issues in themselves. I think how society and policy treat women, that leads to chronic poverty of single mothers, are the problems. There is nothing inherently wrong with a woman bearing a child without being married and choosing to raise that child, except, she's violated that archaic gender "norm" of motherhood without legal subordination to a man (marriage). Public and agency policy has done everything it can throughout U.S. history to push hardship upon single, pregnant women. Yet, women bearing children without being married is what is still seen as the problem, rather than the way women in this situation have been treated. We need equality for women, not to continue to suggest that women who are not married should be encouraged to choose adoption. Adoption does not, can not, and will not solve all of our problems.
I would like to see continued study of illegitimacy and illegitimacy laws throughout the 50's to today (see Solinger and Fessler), as I disagree that the laws and stigmas of illegitimacy have lost their potency. Original Birth Certificate closure laws, based on illegitimacy, (see Wegar, Carpe, and Samuels) very much impact Adult Adoptees to this day and age. Policies and sentiment bent on shaming and punishing women who bore children outside of marriage have shaped current policies in adoption and views of women.

The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered Overview

For nearly two millennia, Western law visited the sins of fathers and mothers upon their illegitimate children, subjecting them to systematic discrimination and deprivation. The graver the sins of their parents, the further these children fell in social standing and legal protection. While some reformers have sought to better the plight of illegitimate children, only in recent decades has illegitimacy lost its full legal sting. Yet the social, economic, and psychological costs of illegitimacy still remain high even in the liberal, affluent West. John Witte analyzes and critiques the shifting historical law and theology of illegitimacy. This doctrine, he argues, misinterprets basic biblical teachings on individual accountability and Christian community. It also betrays basic democratic principles of equality, dignity, and natural rights of all. There are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents, Witte concludes, and he presses for the protection and rights of all children, regardless of their birth status.

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