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Recommended: Advantages and disadvantages of open and closed adoption

“A survey conducted by the Evans D. Donaldson Institute found that six out of ten Americans” have had a ‘personal experience’ with adoption (Dudley 1). With such a high percentage, it is important for one to understand the issues entwined with open and closed adoptions. In the United States today, closed adoptions are associated with secrecy and shame, leading to long-term emotional problems for children and parents. The basic idea of open adoptions allows the child to know his or her birth parents' identities. In addition, information is not permanently concealed in a government file. Open adoptions allow “the birth parent or parents to meet the prospective adoptive parents, participate in the adoption process, and maintain contact with the child and adoptive family after the child is born and adopted.” Because of laws written long ago and the practice of closed adoptions, the right to obtain one’s original birth certificate is restricted in all states but six. In the past, the reasoning in support of the laws was the adoptees would be secure in their new families and wouldn’t need to know where their roots existed. Over time, the practice of closed adoptions has presented major complications, questioning of civil rights, long-term emotional problems, and loss of identity. Within the issue of open and closed adoption, every state should pass legislation allowing adoptees to seek out their biological parents when they turn eighteen.

National coordinator of National Adoptee Rights Day, founder of Voices of Adoption, and an adopted adult, Denise K. Castellucci argues that “adoption should never ask any human being to trade their…right to know the true facts of one’s own birth in return for a promise of a stable and loving home” (Ca...

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...1.

Garcia, Monique, and Bonnie Miller Rubin. "Adoptees Get to See

Birth Certificates: New State Law Eases Secrecy, but Birth Parents Can Opt Out." Chicago Tribune 22 May 2010. 1. SIRS. Web. 17 Nov 2011.

Gritter, James L. "An Open Adoption Policy is Best." Opposing Viewpoints: Adoption. Ed. Roman Espejo. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 2002. 137-46. Print.

"Illinois Legislature passes major change in adoption privacy law." Policy & Practice June 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Nov 2011.

"Introduction to Issues in Adoption: Current Controversies." Issues in Adoptions 2004. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Nov 2011.

Scharnberg, Kirsten. "Laws Ease Adoptees' Search for Their Past." Chicago Tribune 20 Jan 2005. SIRS. Web. 17 Nov 2011.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights." United Nations, Web. 30 Nov 2011.

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