Although some people think adoptees should have the rights to know their birth parents, adopted kids should not have the rights to know their birth parents because birth parents are unsafe and unreliable, birth parents may want a sense of closure and privacy, and the birth families may not want someone exploding into their lives. “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” (Oprah Winfrey) Is it only important who gave birth to a child? To be a mother you need to be Yolanda Jepsen. To be a mother, you need to be there for the child. You have to help the child grow and shape them into the person they will become. You have to teach the child right from wrong. You have to give the child love and support. Being a biological mother does not give you …show more content…
A parent writing for the huffington post said “ This is why my son has a closed adoption and always will. His birth parents are not safe and i will do everything in my power to protect him” (2). The birth parents in this adoption had bad tempers, had been arrested several times, and were abusive. That makes the birth parents unstable and unsafe. The adopted mom wants best for her son, and will do everything to keep her son safe from the harm he can get from his birth parents. She also says in the huffington post, “So in a one year period, they could have seen this lovely little boy more than 100 times. Do you know how many times they showed up? In a whole year? Fourteen. And that was with a social worker driving them TO THEIR HOUSE to pick them up. Often, they just wouldn’t get in the van. Even if the little boy was inside” (2) The birth parents weren't reliable enough to go see their own son on their own, therefore they weren’t taking care of their son, the adopted parents were taking care of the son. There were times the adopted parents had to drive their foster son back and forth to the birth
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
When I heard the clicks of heels in the hallway, I sat up attentively on the waiting couch. A pleasant looking woman came to greet me. She was in her mid fifties and introduced herself as Celeste Drury. She worked with the children home society, an adoption agency that is located in Oakland. I found Celeste through a family friend. The family friend knew my interest in learning about adoption and the criteria used for adoption processes. I was excited to meet Celeste and to learn about what she did. Settling in my chair, Celeste slightly cheered me. Celeste orphanage was licensed under the adoption agencies act. It has been in existence for many years. Children home society is in charge of providing adoption services in the entire state of California. I asked Celeste of its role and she said that it “helps parents to make informed decisions about their children, and also give tips on the adoptive parents” (Drury).
In 2002, 51,000 children were adopted through the foster care system. The federal government tracks the number of adoptions from the United States foster care system, and all of its international adoptions. It’s estimated that around 120,000 children are adopted by U.S citizens each year. Half of these children are adopted by individuals not related to t...
Adoption is a process where by a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the biological parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction. Adoption has changed considerably over the centuries with its focus shifting from adult adoption and inheritance issues toward children and family creation; its structure moving from recognition of continuity between the adopted and kin toward allowing relationships of lessened intensity. In modern times, adoption is a primary vehicle serving the needs of homeless, neglected, abused and runaway children (Wikipedia, “Adoption”).
In the United States there are approximately 397,000 children in out-of home care, within the last year there was about 640,000 children which spent at least some time in out-of-home care. More than 58,000 children living in foster care have had their biological parental rights permanently terminated (Children’s Rights, 2014). Due to the rising number of children in foster care and the growing concerns of the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 was signed into law. On November 19, 1997, President Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, to improve the safety of children, to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and to support families (Child Welfare League of America). The Adoption and Safe Families Act also promotes adoption by offering incentive payments for States. During the FY of 1999-2003 the payment to states which had exceeded the average number of adoptions received $20 million (Child Welfare League of America). The ASFA improved the existing federal child welfare law to require that the child’s health and safety be a “paramount” concern in any efforts made by the state to preserve or reunify the child’s family, and to provide new assurances that children in foster care are safe (Shuman, 2004).
First, social-work and mental-health experts have reached a consensus during the last decade that greater openness offers an array of benefits for adoptees—from ongoing information about family medical issues to fulfillment of their innate desire to know about their genetic histories—even if the expanded relationships prove difficult or uncomfortable for some of the participants (Verbrugge). An open adoption is when the natural mother and the adoptive family know the identity of each other and could obtain background or medical history from the biological parent. In an open adoption the parental rights of biological parents are terminated, as it is in a closed adoption, but an open adoptio...
...cy “we” give “birth mother” and agencies being exposed because of what we might find in adoptees records is just a way to keep stuff away from the people who rightfully deserve the right to know. (The Baltimore Sun ).
Whittaker Hughes, Susan. “The only Americans legally prohibited from knowing who their birth parents are: a rejection of privacy rights as a bar to adult adoptees' access to original birth and adoption records.” Cleveland State Law Review. 55.3 (Summer 2007): p429-461. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.
Many people grow up in loving families and cannot imagine not having their parents and siblings around, but each year, 18,000 or more American born babies are put up for adoption (Newlin Carney). That means at least 18,000 children face the harsh truth of maybe not having a family to grow up in. Childhood is a very important part of one’s life and helps shape who one is. These children that are eligible to be adopted just need loving parents, good homes, and stability. And who is to say the high price of adopting is not ho...
With foster care, foster parents get paid monthly by the state to ensure the children are taken care of. Each child gets an allowance every month to have for spending money. The Department of Children Services (DCS) gives the foster families that adopt money for the children until they turn eighteen, and even before adoption the state sends money for helping take care of foster children. According to the Tennessee Department of Children Services. “When children are not able to stay safely in their own homes and there isn’t a relative who can care for them, they often have to come into state custody. The department’s first goal for children is to work toward a safe return home to their families” (1 Foster care and Adoption). Another form of adoption can be through private agencies. Private agencies allow a person to adopt and choose if it is open or closed. Open adoption is when the child can still see his or her birth parents. Closed adoption is when the parents decided they do not want to see the children. In both cases of open and closed adoption most of the time the child or children are infants and straight from birth go to a family, in some of these cases the parents are young and cannot afford to take care of the child so they choose to let him or her be better off with people that can give them everything they will ever want or need. According to Sally Allphin in the scholarly journal article, “President Clinton’s Adoption 2002 Initiative, which intends to double the number of children who move into adoption or legal guardianship between 1986 and 2002. Each year, states will receive four thousand or six thousand dollars for each adoption that they complete above their projected baselines” (1). Getting attached to foster children is an uncommon thing, but in rare cases the children either go back to their parents or a relative chooses to take the
51% of the birth parents do gain their children back, and 5% allow home visit (@Fosterclub, 4). Once the child enters foster care the birth parent still has a chance to watch them grow and improve. Some foster parents will keep in contact with the birth parents. “When there is direct contact between the foster parent and birth parents; the foster parents can serve as mentors for the birth parents” (Resource, 2). They can be models of effective parenting. Foster parents can provide learning opportunities for the birth parent to practice parenting skills. When the birth parents see their child in foster care; the birth parents notice the how the child is improving. When the birth parents see improvement of their child, they began to realize they need to better themselves. The birth parents tend to improve themselves to provide for the child and give them what they need. While it is up to the biological family, parents can choose to stay in touch with their child’s foster family by asking them to babysit or remain a resource in terms of the child’s education, training, or therapy (Brozak, 3). Once the birth parent improves the environment to the child they usually gain custody back. From the foster parents keeping in touch with the birth parents; the birth parents will tend to use the foster parent as a source when they need help. By foster care it has brought
According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a push to getting them out of a foster home and transition into a safe, loving and permanent environment. The foster care system is run the way it is because of the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.
When a couple or individual decides to adopt a child, they know they are going to take on the responsibility of taking care of someone else’s child. Due to the biological parent(s) who can’t take care of that child anymore, because of either drug abuse, alcohol abuse, abuse to the child or if the parent(s) had died and there is no other care for the child. So that’s why this gives other couples who cannot have kids, the opportunity to promise themselves to be a great parent to a child in need. Though there are some bad things about adoption as well. Like adopting a child from another country of another race, because once that child is adopted into an American family, he or she will be cut off from their culture and never know about their history. Everyone should to know about their culture and history.
The best things in life come free to us. Our parents are one of the most important and fundamental in our life. However, people generally wonder, do adopted children feel the same way we do? Adoption is not easy, it's full of risks, simply because no one is aware of the future, the person adopting a child will never know how the child will react once he's aware he's adopted. Will they grow to love them, hate them, admire them or fear them? All of these unanswerable questions makes any person think twice before having the courage to adopt. Adoption never fails to put down any parents' feelings, whether they were homeless, abandoned, poor or runaway children and also families who don't have the option of being biological parents, the pleasure it gives to all of those people exceeds all of it's expected problems. However; adoption has some positive sides. It's one of life's fair treaties. It gives hope and integrity to the families who weren't fortunate to conceive; moreover, it changes the life of the child forever mostly positively. That's why many people support adoption worldwide.
The practice of adoption began over 4,000 years ago. All adoptions are arranged in 3 ways private, independent, and closed. Private adoptions are adoptions where you can place your child with anybody you choose with the courts approval. Independent adoptions are adoptions where a child’s placement is put arranged by a lawyer or doctor, in some cases the adoptive parents put in the expenses of the pregnancy and deliver of the couple their getting the child from. There are also black market groups that will illegally adopt your baby (with the birth mother’s permission) in some cases you will have nothing to do with your birth if and when the baby is handed over to the adopted parents. Closed adoption is where there is no information about either families, the birth parents or the adoptive parents, after the adopti...