Templates for a right to family life in the shadow of adoption: redressive reforms and calls for apologies in Ireland and the UK

This paper offers analysis of Ireland’s recently enacted Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, focusing upon the controversial history - and socio-legal context - of these long overdue legislative reforms. It then discusses the potential effects of these amendments with those that might well flow from the recent findings of the UK's Joint Human Rights Committee Inquiry on Human Rights (2022) on the Violation of Family Life: Adoption of Children of Unmarried Women 1949–1976, which placed similar emphasis on the need for redress - and formal apology - by both state and church. It argues that redressive actions cannot be viewed in isolation from all that has preceded them. There are potential impacts too, beyond the borders of Ireland and the United Kingdom, given the extent to which the loss of family life (and origin deprivation) continues to feature in much of the case law involving intercountry adoption, donor conception, and certain types of surrogacy. The commonalities, differences, shared debates and discourses on family life rights both pre and post-adoption in these neighbouring jurisdictions are quite telling, pointing to convoluted, uncomfortable histories, lingering stigmas, and an unpredictable future.