SALVATERRA, Fernanda    VERISSIMO, Manuela. A adopção: O Direito e os afectos. Caracterização das famílias adoptivas do Distrito de Lisboa. []. , 26, 3, pp.501-517. ISSN 0870-8231.

Adoption as a human experience is a universal phenomenon which has fulfilled different functions across history, reflecting the way societies view children and their needs, as well as their biological and adoptive parents. In Europe and in America, as well as in other cultures, the family is considered the socio-emotional context where the child should develop. Therefore adoption is the legal procedure which allows the child to have a family, when the biological family is not able to fulfill its role. In Portugal the law has been reviewed in order to protect and defend the children’s rights. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of the adoptive families in the Lisbon District. Adoptive families are similar to biological families in different parameters, with the exception of the infertility and the years of marriage prior to the first child. The adopted child fulfills the expectations of the adoptive parents.

: Adoption; adoptive family; adopted children.

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