Sir, - Prof Patricia Casey's article on attitudes to modern adoption (The Irish Times, November 9th), evokes disturbing resonances of McCarthyism. She characterises modern adoption practices as being "quintessentially Marxist in ideology". A "Marxist" would appear to be defined as anybody who regards economic or cultural oppression as a problem. As Professor Casey puts it, "a stubborn ideology which saw birth mothers as victims of oppression".
But Prof Casey's real focus of attack is social workers. She takes up the cudgel wielded many years ago by her fellow psychiatrist Colin Brewer in Thatcherite Britain. The thesis is essentially Margaret Thatcher's dictum that "there is no such thing as society" and therefore no role for social workers. This is now a dated and deeply discredited position that few would seriously propose.
It would seem that social work education is in Prof Casey's view a training in Marxist ideology. In reality, contemporary social work education is about training for competence to practice. Certainly there is a value base rooted in human rights, social justice and multiculturalism. This is a quintessentially liberal view of the world that is legitimately concerned about the dangers of trading in children. Yes, desperate would-be parents do pay substantial sums to adopt foreign children! This practice is not morally defensible, however understandable in human terms.
In many of the areas where potentially adoptive children come from in eastern Europe there are also concerns about ethnic cleansing. On TV we see in dramatic imagery the appalling human tragedy of ethnic cleansing in practice. There is a legitimate concern that we in Ireland, for however honourable and decent reasons, should not infringe upon the rights of children from ethnically vulnerable communities. Equally, there is a concern that they should not be placed in families where they might be abused - no doubt the source of Prof Casey's charge of "pornographic tests". Prof Casey would seem to be less well versed in the dangers of paedophile rings for transcultural adoptees than she is in the dangers of Marxism. - Yours, etc., Prof Fred Powell,
Department of Applied Social Studies,
University College Cork.