REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Per Steven Ertelt, “adoption is an option that is not discussed nearly enough in the public debate about choice.” With adoption, everybody wins. The unaborted, adopted child gets the chance to live, and a chance to live in a place with loving, caring people. The adoptive parents in return benefit from having a child of their own. Studies even show that children who were born out-of-wedlock but are raised by adoptive parents flourish in many categories. The adoptive children tend to attain higher levels of education, higher self-esteem, and even enjoy better health. Adoption is also beneficial for the birth mother because she benefits from knowing she made the right decision to give life. Despite adoptions advantages, it has fallen on hard times. Research shows there has been a decrease in adoptions since the legalization of abortions in 1973. Before abortions were legalized, 8.7 percent of children born out-of-wedlock were placed up for adoption, and now statistics show that number to be around one-percent. One matter of concern for the pro-life movement is that women facing crisis pregnancies often have false ideas about adoption. Pregnant women think of adoption as the abandonment of their child, and see abortion as a much easier alternative (Ertelt n.p.).
According to Kevin Mcgovern, “for most of the twentieth century, adoption provided a pretty good outcome when a girl or woman became pregnant and was unable to raise her child.” In an era where
Vernon , G., & Leming , M. (2011). The power of adoption: Birthright or birthright? Informally published
Adoption did not emerge as the preferred system of child care in the early nineteenth century because elite families with whom the children were placed often treated them as servants rather than family members. Most significantly, Porter finds that rather than the happy, successful adoption outcomes often portrayed by those favoring adoption, 20 percent of adopted children had negative family experiences. (Carp 3-4)
Adoption is the process in which a person takes over the parenting of someone else’s child and permanently transfers all the responsibilities and rights from the biological parent or parents. Giving up a child for adoption is a very difficult decision for a mother to make. Today, many children are being parented by a single parent, a grandparent, a stepparent, foster parent or other parent figure. Making adoption an option is done by providing loving, responsible, and legally permanent parents to a child when their biological parents are not able or will not take care of them.(Carter)
In modern society, it is difficult to imagine the amount of pain women go through when losing their child to adoption. However, when women's children are put into the adoption system, they have complete control of the situation. Shortly after World War II, the pregnancy rate in young women increased a dramatic amount. Different from mothers today, these young girls were not given the choice to keep their child nor did they have much say in the adoption process. In Ann Fesslers’ book The Girls Who Went Away, pathos, logos, and ethos were used to show the lack of control young pregnant women had in the 1960s.
Within the United States adoption has been evolved markedly, once it was used to “normalize “ a childless marriage (The Free Dictionary, n.d.) or prevent the shame of an adoptee at their “illegitimate” birth or an unwed mother social staning (Fair, 2008) now the primary focus rather is the child’s best interests, a better life. Adoption is a long-standing social behavior that involves a person other than the biological or legal parents of an individual assuming a parenting role in a permanent fashion in the eyes of the law (Health of children, n.d.; The Free Dictionary, n.d.). Through the declaration of legal paperwork a non-biological parent can adopt a child into their home. It must be acknowledged that there are less formal ways
Adoption in America been ruled by a stigma. For much too long, those who could not have children, unwed mothers, and the children born out of wedlock have been shamed and humiliated. I believe it is time for these supposedly disgraceful ideas to go by the wayside, and we begin hold onto the idea that all families are beautiful things, no matter how they are composed or how they came about. There is no shame in being an infertile couple, an unwed mother, or a child with unwed parents.
Adoption is very popular throughout the United States. Most women can’t conceive or maintain a pregnancy, so if they really want a child, they’re forced to adopt. Infertility has increased dramatically throughout the past few years. Couple of issues have encouraged such discussion as has the theme of premature birth.
The source provides information from a variety of professors in the fields of history, women’s studies, statistic, social theory, social problems, and research all working together to analyze the past to come up with solutions about the topics involving controversies with adoption laws over the last several decades. All of these contributors are very highly educated, many of them have PHDs and many others are professors in the above mentioned areas. This book discusses the history of adoption dating back hundreds of years. It provides information about the changes that have happened in adoption reform throughout the United States during specific time periods and compares it with different countries during the same time periods. Many studies are referenced which involve the psychological wellness of the adoptees (Carp, 2004). This source will help to show the benefits of an open adoption on all parties involved. It will also shed light on the psychological problems caused to children of closed adoption, when the adoption records have been sealed.
Choosing to go through an abortion and placing a child up for adoption are quite different matters to analyze. Simply, going through with an abortion is murder by killing a child. Where as, if you were to put a child up for adoption you are giving that child a chance to live. Enduring an abortion may to some people be a convenience; abortion is a quick way of dealing with this problem. Adoption can be seen as a long and grueling process. However, they are both mentally damaging; in both cases the parents, or parent have to give up a child and a life. In some adoption cases some people choose to take back their child; but for others the decision is indefinite. Both situations must be seriously considered and measured.
Many people feel the abortion rate would go up if the truth about adoption and its long term effects on mother and child were known.
In the US alone, there are over four hundred thousand children without permanent families and over one hundred thousand waiting to be adopted (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Couples who cannot have children and are looking for ways for to have children can adopt. Children in foster care are alone and in desperate need of someone to love them unconditionally, showing them that no matter what they are wanted. Adoption is one of the ways couples can have children, through the adoption process, couples can rescue a child from a life in the child welfare system, giving them a family and a hope of a better life, even through the contentious issue of interracial adoptions.
What is adoption? A dictionary would tell you it is “The act of adopting: the state of being adopted,” but is that really all it is (“Webster’s New Collegiate…”)? Many would say it’s less cold than the words crudely printed on that sheet. It gives a child a home and somewhere to be, with someone that loves them and will take care of them (“Adoption with the...”).Some would say adoption is a good thing, I am one of those people. The amount of children in foster care is steadily increasing, while the amount of kids being adopted per year are steadily decreasing (Johnson). One of my uncles went through this system. He had a mother who had beaten and abused from when he was just a baby. My grandma went to visit him occasionally
When the average American citizen today thinks about the concept of adoption, what images are typically the first that come to mind? Although different people are sure to have equally as different experiences in this field, one picture continues to remain the most commonly-accepted. This image consists of a man and a woman who cannot have children of their own, a newborn baby, and a single mother who will certainly be unable to provide for the infant due to her young age, lack of financial support, or another variety of unfortunate circumstances. Making the decision to adopt a child is without a doubt one of the best options available for couples who are unable to conceive, but by thinking of adoption as nothing more than the fallback
During the war, many lives were lost and many orphans were produced. That was the time when intercountry adoption – the adoption and transport of foreign children into another country – became well-known. “Baby-lifts” began with individuals looking to enhance the prosperity of those orphans living in Europe and Japan, bringing them to the United States (Deoudes et al. 18). Those “missions to rescue” orphaned children carried on through the 1950s, taking in Korean orphans, and through the 1970s, bringing in children from Vietnam. Intercountry adoption has exploded in the past thirty years. In the adoption market, the demand for domestic adoption has declined, creating a surplus of U.S. orphans (Mather). International adoption harms the youth living in America’s foster system. In order for these youth to have a more prosperous future, international adoption must be placed on the backburner and domestic adoption must be the priority
Adoption is metamorphosing into a radical new process that is both sweeping the nation and changing it. But this process is not an easy one, there are many steps to go through. Through research it is made a lot easier. Adoption is a also a highly visible example of a social institution that has benefits from and been reshaped by both the Internet and the exponential growth of alternative lifestyles, from single to transracial to gay. It is accelerating our transformation into a more multicultural society; even as it helps redefine out understanding of “family.” The process includes three main steps including a type of adoption, the techniques for location a baby for adoption, arranging