Spring Miller Lecture March 29 to Feature Harvard Expert on International Adoption
March 5, 2007
The 40th Henry J. Miller Distinguished Lecture Series at the College of Law March 29 will feature Professor Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard University, who will discuss challenging issues awaiting tomorrow's child advocates. 
Professor Bartholet, the Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School, will speak on International Adoption: Thoughts on Children's Rights Issues.
The luncheon and lecture set for Thursday, the 29th, will be held from 12-1:15 p.m. in the Georgia State University Student Center First Floor State Ballroom.
The Miller Lecture is free of charge and open to the public, with reservations required by March 20. R.S.V.P. to Vickie Dye at 404-651-4360 or by e-mail at vdyegsu.edu.
In 2004, Professor Bartholet founded the Child Advocacy Program (CAP, which is committed to advancing children's interests through facilitating productive interaction between academia and the world of policy and practice, and through training generations of students to contribute in their future careers to law reform and social change. She teaches civil rights and family law, specializing in child welfare, adoption and reproductive technology.
Before joining the Harvard faculty, Professor Bartholet was engaged in civil rights and public interest work, first with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and later as founder and director of the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit organization in New York City focused on criminal justice and substance abuse issues. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1962 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1965. The author of various publications on adoption, Professor Bartholet has won several awards for her writing and her related advocacy work in the area of adoption and child welfare, including a Media Achievement Award in 1994 and the Radcliffe College Humane Recognition Award in 1997.
“International adoption is highly controversial,” Professor Bartholet said in advance of her visit to Atlanta. “Many important children's rights organizations attack it as violating children's fundamental rights to heritage, and characterized by extensive abuses including baby buying. Others like me argue that it serves children's core interests in having a chance to grow up in a nurturing family, and that the abuses have been wildly exaggerated, and used by opponents to restrict international adoption in ways that do children far more harm than good.
“The opponents have achieved notable victories in recent years, closing down many countries which used to place children abroad, including Romania and many countries in Latin America,” she added. “At the same time, the new Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, soon to be ratified by the U.S., gives some new legitimacy to international adoption. The future is uncertain. During the lecture I will describe key trends, explore the politics, and discuss the pros and cons of international adoption in terms of children's interests that are said to be at the core of this debate.”
The complete text of Professor Bartholet's lecture is available for download.
Vegetarian meal requests for the Miller Lecture should be made with R.S.V.P., and parking for the event will be available in Deck M on Auditorium Place for $6.