Open Adoption Research Paper

~Adoption~

Keeping it Open

Amber Lopes

Ms. Campbell

Honors English 11/12

6 March 2015

“Today, 80% or more of domestic infant adoptions are open adoptions,” Kathleen Silber and Phylis Speedlin share from Dear Birthmother: Thank you for our baby. Open adoption is an option available to families who are financially unable to care for a child. “By the late 1990's,” the question of whether open adoption was the right choice or not, “was no longer relevant. Openness will be the rule (with a few exceptions, of course) and what we now call open adoption will just be called adoption” (Silber and Speedlin). When it comes to the topic of open adoption, many will readily agree that it may cause disagreements about the parenting decisions of the adoptive

For example, Fears and Facts About Open Adoption share the fears of new adoptive mothers, such as conflict over the parenting decisions, especially jealousy from the adoptive mother towards the relationship of the birth mother and the child. Even though this is true, studies show from the same source that “80% of parents who adopted...found they did not feel jealous of their child’s birth mother.” This source’s informant is helpful to new adopting mothers because the source found that “when people seek information, and their fears are replaced by knowledge, their fears subside.” When future adopting mothers allay their fears of open adoptions, there tends to be an increase in this type of adoption. To add on, other fears according to Fears and Facts About Open Adoption are: “Open adoptions do not allow boundaries. The birth parents can visit when they want. Some find having contact with the birth family will be an intrusion on their family. Many are afraid the birth parents will try to undermine the relationship with the child.” These fears are all connected because they include problems dealing with intrusion on the new adopting family’s life. On the contrary, these fears were addressed in a survey whose outcome reports: “Adoptive parents and birthparents create a legally-enforceable open adoption agreement, an individualized plan

A couple who opts for open adoption will be blessed to have the biological parents in the family’s life because of the blessing (that the biological parents offered to the adopting parents). Open adoption gives the child the opportunity to have both the biological and adoptive parents a part of the child’s life. Could Open Adoption be the Best Choice for You and Your Baby, states the positive effects of what a child goes through with the open adoption process. For example, “removal of the feelings of secrecy and shame that can come up at different points in [the child’s] life, links to [the child’s] birth mother, and possibly birth father, brothers, and sisters, and knowledge to important medical information” (Could Open Adoption be the Best Choice for You and Your Baby). In most open adoptions today, the child is allowed the access to the birth parents and receiving information, which in a closed adoption, the adoptee would never obtain. Also, in open adoptions the birth parents are able to choose who the adopted parents are for the child. For example, if a close relative couldn’t conceive a child, the birth parents could allow that couple to adopt the child. “Having been selected by the birth parents, the adoptive parents feel entitled to parent, which is an essential ingredient in all adoptions” (Silber). Overall, open adoption is beneficial to the adoptee because it