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The article focuses on child adoption in Hawaii. In 1851, Massachusetts passed the first adoption law which focused on safeguarding the rights of children. As in most instances, this law was enacted to legalize and regulate already existing practices and customs in the community. In Hawaii, among the Hawaiians, rearing someone else's child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, was an acceptable tradition and the gift of one's child to a relative or friend was an act of love and respect. This practice of hanai was not cemented by any legal action and was not confined to poverty-stricken children. It is impossible to state to what extent the informal practice of hanai still exists. In 1951, Hawaii had the highest adoption rate of the twenty five U.S. states reporting comparable data to the U.S. Children's Bureau. Beginning in 1948, approximately 600 children have been legally adopted annually in Hawaii. During this period, there has been some fluctuation in the adoption figures but no discernable trend. The latest year for which adoption statistics are available is 1956. During that year, of the 611 children involved in adoption, 502 resided in Honolulu, 52 in Hawaii, 41 in Maui and 16 in Kauai. Although adoption is ordinarily considered the process by which a child becomes a member of a family to which he/she is unrelated, 72 percent of all petitions filed in 1956 were filed by step-parents or other relatives such as aunts, uncles and grandparents. By far, the largest of these were step-parents. The remainder were filed by persons unrelated to the child. Approximately 20 percent of the children involved in adoption petitions are placed with persons not related to them. Of these children placed with non-related persons, about half are placed by social agencies and about half by other individuals such as friends, physicians and lawyers.

This article reports that there are almost two million adopted children under 18 years of age in the U.S., according to latest figures on legal adoption compiled by the Children's Bureau, U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare. A record number of adoptions were made in 1965. And of 76,000 who were adopted by non-relatives, more than two of every three were placed through social agencies.