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Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than the birth parents. Adoption results in the severing of the parental responsibilities and rights of the biological parents and the placing of those responsibilities and rights onto the adoptive parents. After the finalization of an adoption, there is no legal difference between biological and adopted children. Parenting comprises all the tasks involved in raising a child to an independent adult. ...
Different jurisdictions have varying laws on adoption and post-adoption. Some practice confidential or closed adoption, preventing further contact between the adopted person and the biological parents, while others have varying degrees of open adoption, which may allow such contact.
Reasons for adoption
Many children are placed for adoption as a result of the biological parents' decision that they are unable to adequately care for a child. However, in some developing countries, single parenthood is considered scandalous and unacceptable, and some women in this situation make an adoption plan for their infants. In some cases, they abandon their children at or near an orphanage, so that they can be adopted.
Some biological parents involuntarily lose their parental rights (called termination of parental rights or TPR in the United States). This usually occurs because the children were abused, neglected or abandoned and were then placed in foster care. After about 15 months, if the parents cannot resolve the problems that caused or contributed to the harm caused to their children (such as alcohol or drug abuse), a court may terminate the parental rights. The children may then be adopted.
In fiscal year 2001, 50,703 foster children were adopted in the United States, many by their foster parents or relatives of the biological parents. In the United States, the enactment of the Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997 has approximately doubled the number of children adopted from foster care.
A small percentage of children who were adopted have been orphaned because of the death of their biological parents. Alternative uses: see orphan (typesetting), and orphan process in computing. ...
In some cases, parents' rights have been terminated when their outgroup culture has been deemed unfit by the controlling government. Aboriginal Peoples in Australia were affected by such policies, as were Native Americans in the United States and Canada. Moreover, unwed mothers in many countries still are often pressured or forced by families, churches or governments into relinquishing their children for adoption. These practices of the past have become emotionally-charged social and political issues in recent years. Stolen Generation is the term commonly used to mean the Australian Aboriginal children who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between approximately 1900 and 1972. ...
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is the sixth-largest country in the world, the only country to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia/Oceania. ...
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The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ...
Canada is a sovereign state in northern North America, the northern-most country in the world, and the second largest in total area. ...
People make decisions to adopt for various reasons; however, the inability to produce a biological child is the most common reason. The most prevalent obstacle to producing a biological child is infertility. Another obstacle is the lack of a partner of the opposite sex or a lack of desire to use a surrogate or sperm donor. Gay and single people often adopt for this reason. Infertility is the inability to naturally conceive, carry or deliver a healthy child. ...
Some couples or single individuals adopt children even though they are fertile. In general, such individuals adopt children from other countries.
Adoption agencies Adoption agencies can range from government-funded agencies that place children at little cost, to lawyers who arrange private adoptions, to international commercial and non-profit agencies. Adoptive parents can pay from nothing to US$40,000 for an adoption. Infants are more commonly sought than toddlers or older children, and many adoptive parents seek to adopt children of the same race. However, individuals adopting children from other countries, such as in Eastern Europe, should be aware of the ethnic diversity of the culture.
International adoption is becoming more popular with a perceived lower risk of birth family contact post-adoption and more young healthy children available than in major domestic adoptive countries. China is the leading country for American international adoptions. The most common countries for International Adoption by parents in the United States for 2003 are China, Russia, Guatemala, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. ...
One reason international adoption has become popular is that adopting parents are fearful of birth parents in the United States changing their mind about adoption. In addition, many U.S. adoption agencies encourage open adoptions, in which some adoptive parents do not wish to participate. Few international adoptions are open adoptions.
One problem with international adoptions is that unethical people see an opportunity to make a relatively high profit, in part because the costs of living are much lower than the adoptive parents' country, There are no firm numbers on the illegal or unethical adoptions, as adoptive families are reluctant to publicize unethical adoptions, but several countries have closed following high profile trafficking and corruption cases, such as Romania and Cambodia. Romania (formerly spelled Rumania or Roumania; Romanian: România) is a country in southeastern Europe. ...
National motto: Nation, Religion, King National anthem: Nokoreach Capital Phnom Penh Largest city Phnom Penh Official languages Khmer Government King Prime Minister Democratic const. ...
Issues surrounding adoption The number of children available for adoption inside Western nations have dropped considerably in recent years, partly because of the legalization of abortions, partly because of the increased acceptance of single parenthood, and partly because the US is becoming increasingly conservative and more people are opting to parent. When parents choose to place their child with adoptive parents, the process of separation is difficult for all parties. Abortion, in its most common usage, refers to the voluntary or induced termination of a pregnancy, generally through the use of surgical procedures or drugs. ...
Many children are adopted from foreign countries nowadays. Children adopted through International adoptions are best served when adoptive families commit to integrating the child's birth nation cultures, traditions, stories, languages and relationships. Some countries now require adoptive parents to keep the birth names of their adoptive children and many adoptive parents choose to do this as it makes sense in helping their child develop a strong sense of self. The most common countries for International Adoption by parents in the United States for 2003 are China, Russia, Guatemala, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. ...
Another issue for prospective adoptive parents to be cognizant of is reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Many children, especially those beyond infancy in system care (e.g. foster, orphanage), domestic or foreign, develop this disorder due to the loss of the initial primary caregiver. A search on the internet for 'reactive attachment disorder' will expose much information and journals from parents dealing with RAD. The Attachment Center (http://www.FamilyAttachmentCenter.org[Family)] is an excellent resource.
Reunification Many adopted people and biological parents who were separated by adoption have a desire to reunite. In countries which practice confidential adoption, this desire has led to efforts to open sealed records (for example, see Adoption reunion registry) and efforts to establish the right of adoptees to access their sealed records (for example, see Bastard Nation). An adoption reunion registry is a formal mechanism through which adoptees and their birth families can attempt a reunion. ...
Bastard Nation is an a North American adoptee rights organization. ...
Adoptism Adoptism is a prejudice against adoption defined by several beliefs: - The belief that when there is a large market demand for babies and there are not enough true orphans to be found, parents who might otherwise keep their families together might be influenced to surrender their babies
- The belief that exploitation of other families to get babies for adoption is not a legitimate way to build a family
- The belief that children are harmed by removal from fit natural parents to be used for adoption
- The belief that mothers and fathers reproductive rights are denied by adoption, where "consent" is uninformed, unduly influenced or bypassed
- The belief that human beings must not be denied their heritage
- The belief that adoptees are affected throughout their lives by the loss of their natural family and by denial of their natural family as family. Succeeding generations are also affected. This denial is inherent in adoption.
- The belief that a mother (and father) should be encouraged to find ways to keep their family members together rather than to "choose" adoption and select prospective adopters prior to their child even being born
Positive adoption language In most cultures, family and family heritage are valued. Honest language, which does not promote unrelated adoptive situations for children over natural parents, is used. Adoption businesses encourage biased "positive adoption language" to build up their businesses. This biased language makes people who are unrelated to a child appear to be more entitled to a child than her own family is.
Following is an example of the type of language that is preferred by the adoption industry: | Non-preferred: | Preferred: | Reason for preference: | | your own child | birth child | Saying a biologically-related child is your own child or one of your own children implies that an adopted child is not. | | child is adopted | child was adopted | Some adoptees believe that their adoption is not their identity, but is an event that happened to them. ("Adopted" becomes a participle rather than an adjective.) Others contend that "is adopted" makes adoption sound like a disability to be overcome. | | give up for adoption | place for adoption or make an adoption plan | "Give up" implies despair, a lack of hope. The terms preferred by the adoption industry imply that a vulnerable, pressured mother had a real "choice". | | real or natural mother/father/parent | birth or biological mother/father/parent | The use of the term "real" for persons who are related by nature (biology) implies that the adoptive family is artificial. The term 'birth' mother is dehumanzing, limiting a mothers role and making a mother appear to be an incubator, rather than mother of her child. | | your adopted child | your child | The use of the adjective 'adopted' may prove to be a hurtful reminder to an adopted person that their natural family apparently did not want them. |
See also This article needs cleanup. ...
Possibly the most famous Roman adoptee, Augustus Caesar In ancient Rome, adoption of boys was a fairly common procedure, particularly in the upper senatorial class. ...
Bastard Nation is an a North American adoptee rights organization. ...
Illegitimacy was a term in common usage for the condition of being born of parents who are not validly married to one another; the legal term is bastardy. ...
A Korean adoptee or KAD is a person who was adopted from Korea as a child and raised in another country, often by adoptive parents of another race, ethnic background, and culture. ...
External links
United States - State Child Welfare Agency and Photolisting Web Pages (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/r_agency.cfm) (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse)
- State and Nationwide Adoption & Related Child Welfare Links (http://www.mare.org/Links.html) (Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange)
- Adoption Photolisting Websites (http://www.adopt.org/adoption_photolistings.html) (National Adoption Center)
Canada - Adoption Links (http://www.adoption.ca/links.htm) (Adoption Council of Canada)
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