Contemporary Forced Adoption Policy in Denmark and Norway: Rationales for the Biopolitical Regulation of Reproduction and Kinship

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents a critical reading of Norwegian and Danish contemporary forced adoption policy as biopolitical regulation of reproduction and kinship in the Nordic welfare state. The analysis investigates how contemporary forced adoption policy has been shaped through legislative amendments from the early 2000s to the present and discusses central rationales behind the policy of forced adoption. Over the period, two amendments to the Danish and Norwegian laws were decisive for how forced adoption is practiced and lead to significant increases in forced adoptions per year. The 2009 amendment in Norway, relied on a rationale of safety and stability, which positions forced adoption as the scientifically optimal choice for the child underpinned by ideals derived from development and attachment psychology. The 2015 amendment to Danish law relied on the rationale of exception, asserting the indisputable necessity of forced adoption. Additionally, it built on the rationale of probability to make live of a future in which the child belongs to the adoptive family while first kinship is terminated.