Adoption

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that there are approximately 120,000 adoptions in the United States each year, many of which are successfully completed. However, the writer points out that while substantial amounts succeed, nearly twenty percent disrupt before legalization can occur. The writer maintains that this is due, in part, to the high level of rights retained by the biological parents in adoption cases. This paper discusses the rights of biological parents and the court's reasoning for upholding these rights. The writer then looks at the consequences of such rights to adoptive parents. This shows that while adoptive parents do hold some right to their new child, the biological parents have far more rights during the adoption process, and even following birth.

From the Paper:

"The consequences for the adoptive parents can be devastating. In open adoption cases, where the adoptive parents have provided monetary support, physician care, and other necessities to the biological mother, a pre-birth consent is still not binding. This means the time, money, and effort exerted by the adoptive parents may be for nothing, clearly showing the biological mother's rights to be valued higher than those of the adoptive parents. Even in agency adoptions, the adoptive parents are forced to relinquish the child if the biological parent revokes consent, even if the child has already been placed within the home."

Sample of Sources Used:

• American Bar Association. "Chapter 6: Adoption." The ABA Guide to Family Law. New York: Random House Reference, 1996. 1-13.
• Groza, Victor. and Rosenberg, Karen. Clinical and practice issues in adoption: bridging the gap between adoptees placed as infants and as older children. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998.
• Hollinger, Joan H. "The Future of Children." Adoption 3.1 (1993): 43-61.
• National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights. Washington, D.C.: US Dept of Health and Human Services, 2004.

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