Forgive me if this was mentioned already as I have not been reading all of the emails.  The Association for Research on Mothering has been working on a volume on the topic of adoption.  I am not sure if it has been published yet, but their website can be consulted here: http://www.yorku.ca/arm/index.html

--- On Thu, 3/19/09, Melissa Burchard <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Melissa Burchard <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: a must-read
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009, 7:14 AM
> I have read with great interest the
> must-read and subsequent comments and want to throw in some
> recent experience of my own with the lack of attention to
> issues around adoption. Last fall I submitted an article for
> Sheila Lintott's edition "Motherhood and Philosophy" in the
> Wiley-Blackwell series of books "...and Philosophy". In the
> call for papers she suggested that anyone with an
> interesting topic might contact the series general editor,
> Fritz Allhoff, to see if he was interested in it. I emailed
> him with the suggestion that a volume on adoption would be
> not only appropriate but would bring out issues that have
> been pretty much ignored in philosophy. I offered
> suggestions on many topics, trying to indicate the kinds of
> issues the volume could address.
> I was disappointed in his response, to say the least, which
> was basically: we already have volumes on motherhood and
> fatherhood, so surely that's enough to do with parenting.
> I didn't pursue it, partly because of time and mostly
> because it seemed so clear that he was not seeing at all
> what kinds of issues adoption can entail, nor what kinds of
> philosophical discussions could be had.
> I support Shelley's suggestion that we might do a
> "difficult discussion" around adoption, although I would
> like to see it not be limited to the issues already raised.
> My own concerns as an adoptive mother of two older 
> siblings who were severely abused are  quite different.
> Either way, I would strongly support any moves in the
> direction of bringing adoption issues of many types into
> academic view.
> Melissa Burchard