Letter: One mother's story: an exception that ignores adoption practice

I AM most concerned by the generalisation in 'Adoption: one mother's story' (30 August) that 'the British attitude is that the child and the birth parents must be kept ignorant of one another until the child grows up'. Although one has every sympathy with the young woman's experiences, they are not necessarily paralleled elsewhere, and Fiammetta Rocco ignores good practice and sensitive work by many social workers in local authorities and voluntary agencies.

The article also ignores the new Children Act, which encourages an open policy in adoptions whereby full information is mutually exchanged in advance of placement and thereafter, in certain situations, some form of (limited) contact between mother and adoptive family may be granted.

Anne Marcovitch

Banbury, Oxfordshire