This practice has historically been a significant issue in various countries, where societal, governmental, and institutional pressures led to the forced separation of children from their families, especially in cases where the parents were marginalized, impoverished, or deemed unfit by authorities.
The discovery of the grave sparked widespread outrage and renewed discussions about the treatment of women and children in similar institutions across Ireland during the 20th century.
The home's legacy remains a significant point of reflection in the history of Ireland's treatment of vulnerable women and children.
[citation needed] Belgium also witnessed forced adoptions, particularly in the post-World War II era, where social norms surrounding family and legitimacy influenced the treatment of unmarried mothers.
Like in other countries, these forced adoptions were often shrouded in secrecy, with little regard for the emotional and psychological consequences on both the birth parents and the children.
The Belgian government has since acknowledged these injustices, but many individuals affected by forced adoptions continue to seek closure and reunification with their birth families.
The system was often coercive, with authorities threatening to label mothers as unfit or irresponsible parents, or even to have them institutionalized if they refused to relinquish their children for adoption.
[10] In Canada, the Canadian Indian residential school system involved First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, who often suffered severe abuse.
[16] As part of the persecution of Uyghurs in China, in 2017 alone at least half a million children were forcefully separated from their families, and placed in pre-school camps with prison-style surveillance systems and 10,000 volt electric fences.
Hispanic eugenics was pioneered by psychiatrist Antonio Vallejo-Nájera who proposed a link between Marxism and intellectual disability, leading to the thefts of many Spanish newborns and young children from their left-wing parents.
[24][25] In 2013, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologized for the forced adoption in Australia of babies born to unwed mothers that occurred mostly in the twentieth century.
[28][29][30][31] In South Korea, during the military dictatorship, the government pursued a "social purification" program that forced thousands of people off the streets into government-funded, privately run welfare centres.
[33][34] In the United Kingdom, former judge Alan Goldsack called for the UK Government to forcibly remove children from 'criminal families' at birth and to place them for adoption.