Open adoption
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the adoptive parents, and often the adopted child, interact directly with birth parents. Family members interact in ways that feel most comfortable to them. Communication may include letters, emails, telephone calls, or visits. The frequency of contact is negotiated and can range from every few years to several times a month or more. Contact often changes as a child grows and has more questions about his or her adoption or as families’ needs change.
Direct access to birth parents and history has advantages of answering identity questions ("Who do I look like? Why was I placed?") and lessening fantasies (birth parents are "real"). There are also disadvantages. There is no clean break for assimilation into family, which some feel is necessary.[1] There is also the potential for feelings of rejection if contact stops, or for playing families against each other.
Even in an open adoption, the birth parents' legal rights of guardianship are terminated, and the adoptive parents become the legal parents.[1] In some jurisdictions, the birth and adoptive parents may enter into a binding agreement concerning visitation, exchange of information, or other interaction regarding the child.[2] Far more common are informal agreements, which may change over time as each set of parents' lives progress. As legal guardians, the adoptive parents are responsible for implementing contact arrangements in the child's best interests and hold final decision-making authority.
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[edit] Access to birth records
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This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page. |
In nearly all US States, adoption records are sealed and withheld from public inspection after the adoption is finalized. Most States have instituted procedures by which parties to an adoption may obtain nonidentifying and identifying information from an adoption record while still protecting the interests of all parties. Nonidentifying information includes the date and place of the adoptee's birth; age, race, ethnicity, religion, medical history, physical description, education, occupation of the birth parents; reason for placing the child for adoption; and the existence of other children born to each birth parent.
All States allow an adoptive parents to nonidentifying information of an adoptee who is still a minor. Nearly all States allow the adoptee upon reaching adulthood to nonidentifying information about birth relatives. Approximately 27 States allow birth parents access to nonidentifying information. In addition, many States give such access to adult birth siblings.
Identifying information is any data that may lead to the positive identification of an adoptee, birth parents, or other birth relatives. Nearly all States permit the release of identifying information when the person whose information is sought has consented to the release. Many States ask birth parents to specify at the time of consent or relinquishment whether they are willing to have their identity disclosed to the adoptee when he or she is age 18 or 21.5. If consent is not on file, the information may not be released without a court order documenting good cause to release the information. A person seeking a court order must be able to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that there is a compelling reason for disclosure that outweighs maintaining the confidentiality of a party to an adoption.[3] In Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Oregon, there is no requirement to document good cause in order to access their birth certificates.[4][5][6][7] Some groups, such as Bastard Nation, One Voice,[8] and Origins USA,[9] campaign for adoptees' automatic access to birth certificates in other US states.
At age 18, people adopted in the United Kingdom are automatically entitled to their birth certificates and may access their adoption records.[4]
[edit] Other degrees of openness
An adoption where the adoptive and birth parents do not become aware of each others' identities and where only medical and historical information is given to the adoptive parents is known as a closed adoption. In a semi-open adoption, the birth parents may meet the adoptive parents one or several times and then have no more physical contact. Non-identifying letters and pictures may be exchanged directly or via a third party, such as an adoption agency, throughout the years.[10]
[edit] History of openness in adoption
Closed adoptions began in the late 19th century and remained popular until the early 1980s. They protected birth mothers and adoptive parents from the social stigma that surrounded adoption at the time. Birth mothers who pursued adoption were often viewed as social outcasts by society. Many adoptive parents were also seen as outcasts due to their inability to bear their own children. This led to the popularity of closed adoptions, which protected the identities of both birth and adoptive parents.[11][12]
By the 1980s, as the social stigmas had decreased and benefits of openness became better understood, openness in adoption became much more common.
Although open adoptions are thought to be a relatively new phenomenon, in fact most adoptions in the United States were open until the twentieth century. Until the 1930's, most adoptive parents and birth parents had contact at least during the adoption process.[13] In many cases, adoption was seen as a social support: young children were adopted out not only to help their parents (by reducing the number of children they had to support) but also to help another family by providing an apprentice.
Adoptions became closed when social pressures mandated that families preserve the myth that they were formed biologically. One researcher has referred to these families, that made every attempt to match the child physically to their adoptive families, as 'as if' families.[14][15]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Openness in Adoption, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau, 2003, <http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_openadopt.pdf>
- ^ Postadoption Contact Agreements Between Birth and Adoptive Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau, 2005, <http://childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/cooperative.cfm>
- ^ Access to Adoption Records, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau, 2006, <http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/infoaccessap.cfm>
- ^ a b http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07316/833100-84.stm Retrieved 29th February 2008
- ^ http://www.unsealedinitiative.org/html/articles.html Accessed: 2nd March 2008
- ^ http://apostille.us/news/bill_looks_to_open_adoption_records.shtml Accessed: 2nd March 2008
- ^ http://adoption.about.com/od/adoptionrights/a/openingrecords.htm Accessed: 2nd March 2008
- ^ One Voice, No Secrets Available: http://www.onevoicenosecrets.org/main/ Accessed: 27th April 2008.
- ^ Origins USA position papers Available: http://originsusa.memberlodge.org/Default.aspx?pageId=24588 Accessed: 27th April 2008.
- ^ American Pregnancy Association
- ^ History of Adoption: Closed Adoption, National Adoption Center, <http://www.adoptionclubhouse.org/03_homework/02_history/07_closed.html>. Retrieved on 2 May 2008
- ^ Closed Adoption, SharedJourney, <http://www.sharedjourney.com/adoption/closed.html>. Retrieved on 2 May 2008
- ^ Adamec & Pierce, 1991
- ^ Yngvesson, Barbara. Going "Home": Adoption, Loss of Bearings, and the Mythology of Roots. Social Text - 74 (Volume 21, Number 1), Spring 2003, pp. 7-27. Duke University Press.
- ^ Yngvesson, Barbara. Refiguring Kinship in the Space of Adoption. Anthropological Quarterly - Volume 80, Number 2, Spring 2007, pp. 561-579. George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research
[edit] External links
- Open Adoption Resources and Support
- Openadoption.org A web site dedicated to practical advice and cautions in work to achieve an open adoption
