ABSTRACT
Conventionally, fostering involves a parent or set of parents looking after someone else’s child, often on a long-term basis, whereas adoption involves in addition the acquisition of a ‘kin’ relationship between such parents and their (adopted) children. Both practices involve the assumption of parental roles by individuals who are not the child’s biological or birthparents, but the addition of *kinship status in adoption makes that concept both more problematic and more interesting.
