ABSTRACT
However, families who are successful at adopting a child typically fit several aspects of this profile or, at any rate, are knowledgeable enough about this profile to provide answers to questions and dress and act in ways that make us appear desirable as parents. Here doctors play the role of gatekeepers, determining how the good mother will act (e.g., she will eat only healthy foods, get adequate rest, take prenatal vitamins, refrain from smoking and drinking, avoid strenuous exercise, and abstain from certain sexual practices). In light of these issues, it makes little sense to consider biological maternal bodies as natural objects outside of social contexts. Some white women who adopt children of color or disabled children may do so, consciously or unconsciously, for reasons linked to self-aggrandizement, religious principles or even humanitarian motives that are questionable from a queer, feminist, anti-racist and/or anti-ablist, point of view.
