Elizabeth Bartholet

Adoption is the best option for abused and neglected children, argues Elizabeth Bartholet in the following viewpoint. Archaic policies that discourage the adoption of abused children because they are often older or damaged should be replaced with policies that encourage adoption of these children because adoption helps them recover and heal, contends Bartholet. She claims that potential adoptive parents want to adopt children of all races, ages, and abilities. Bartholet is an adoptive mother, a professor at Harvard Law School, and author of Nobody’s Children: Abuse and Neglect, Foster Drift, and the Adoption Alternative, from which the following viewpoint was taken.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Bartholet, what have drug experts been saying about the adoptability of “crack babies”"
2. What does the author conclude from studies showing...