Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I focus on the making of kinship through "grey zone" practices of private adoption in Greece.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I focus on the making of kinship through practices of private adoption in Greece. Private adoption is legal and is taken place under the direct collusion of perspective adoptive parents and genitors or an inter-mediator without the involvement of a state social service. The last ten years 550 children are adopted annually and a number of 90-95 % of these adoptions are private. Private adoption is a highly criticised practice on behalf of the social workers and the local media, which reproduce a discourse about "buying and selling babies". This discourse is even more emblematic in the cases of biological mothers from Bulgaria that come to Greece only for giving birth and deliver the child to the perspective parents. But at the same time that we hear of this critic we perceive from the same media and from the law makers a discourse of compassion and an understanding of the infertile couples for their involvement in these practices because of their desire to have a child. Here I focus on a case-study of a mother who has adopted privately and I am trying to see how kinship is made in the "grey zones" of private adoption and how a possible discourse of illegality and monetisation is being transformed.