Adoption Laws: Need For Reform

Adoption is defined as the “act by which an adult formally becomes the guardian of a child and incurs the rights and responsibilities of a parent.” (Legal Information Institute, 2015). The first legislation ACT to govern legal adoptions was made in Western Australia in 1896 at a peak of high infanticide and infant mortality rates. Since then, new legislations have been made across each state and adoption rates have been increasing steadily. However, as indicated by a series of National Data collected by the Australian Government, following the peak of almost 10,000 adoptions between 1970 and 1971, there has been a sharp decline in adoption rates. Over the last decade specifically, there has been a low and steady rate of 400-600 adoptions per

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)

According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a

Bibliography: Berebitsky, Julie. " Adoption." Dictionary of American History, edited by Stanley I. Kutler, 3rd ed. , vol. 1, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003, pp.

Miraculously in 2010 Florida acknowledged that the adoption ban was unconstitutional (eQuality, 2005). In previous years homosexuals interested in the adoption process would use foster care to acquire the same nurturing family that heterosexuals had acquired thus, circumventing the system. The unconstitutional ban had the ability to deter potential same sex adoptive parents because they feared automatic exclusion. With the increased pressure from the gay community to allow same sex adoptions many adoption agencies are becoming more accommodating to homosexuals. However, the obstacles that same sex couples encounter tend to minimize the whole family structure and make the family unit vulnerable (Brown, Smalling, Groza, & Ryan, 2009).

A fifth source that will convey the psychological effects that open adoption has on the adopted child is the book, Psychological issues in adoption written by David M. Brodzinsky and Jesus Palacious. This source will give the reader insight on the effects than an open adoption has on the child that was adopted. This source will allow the reader to see real testimonies of children that were adopted through an open adoption, and will also allow the reader to better understand open adoption from the child’s point of

Same-sex adoptions are when a gay or lesbian couple decides since they are unable to conceive that they would like the same opportunities as everyone else and adopt a child. There are many people who do not support this. The reason for their unsupportiveness is that they think they just aren’t a right fit for children. Others though say that a child’s welfare is better served in a family environment with two parents, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation (“Adoption). In the article, “Birth Mother wins return of toddler after ‘adoption by lesbian couple”, it tells a story of a deaf mother giving birth to a child and then having it be adopted by a lesbian couple only to take it away three years later. All three women had the exact same disability and that is why the birthmother aloud her daughter to be adopted from them. The birth mother thought that she would be unable to care for her child but later on found out she would be able to provide for her daughter. Although this situation was unique because they did not go through an adoption agency the lesbian mothers showed very clearly that they could take care of the child. They had cared for the girl from the minute she was born until the day the birth mother took her back. The couple even lived in the birth mothers house for the last few months of her pregnancy and practical raised the birth mothers children. After all this though the court still ruled that the couple was unfit to

The aim of this study is to evaluate the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 2007. This act provides children waiting in foster care with permanent families through adoption. The states increased the number and proportion of adopted children that received adoption assistance because the child had a special need. The article goes over administrative data that indicates that states more diligently recorded the special needs of children as well as post adoption financial support and assistants. The paper reviews how some states found themselves in the contradictory position of promoting adoption while simultaneously cutting post- adoption support. In the next section of the article it outlines federal adoption incentives and funding for post- adoption

Design/Methodology: This exploratory design hopes to attain valuable insight on what types of post adoption services are available to families. This design is qualitative as it seeks to explore the types of services that are offered and if any have a positive influence in providing the necessary support to assist in the preservation of adoptive families. It is hoped that this results can provide a deeper understanding of which post adoption services are vital in aiding new adoptive parents to safeguard their forever family against possible challenges that lie ahead. Sampling: This study will utilize non probability convenience and purposive sampling as current or former foster parents of the Los Angeles child welfare system will be recruited through various post adoption service agencies. Eligible participants are individuals who have received post adoption services and finalized adoption with at least one child. According to Acharya et al. (2013), convenience and purposive sampling is beneficial when participation of individuals is needed to meet a certain criteria; individuals will also be easily located for the study. Two hundred former consumers of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, Post Adoption Services Unit (PAS) department will be invited to participate in the study via U.S. mail. The PAS unit offers post adoption services such as referrals and counseling to families to avoid family dissolutions which will return the child in the child

To understand some of these issues, the focus will primarily be directed towards how the law views same-sex adoptions. An analysis will compare and contrast on the upbringing of children who have been adopted and the

This has caused me to want to further research the issue. What are the social and emotional effects that adoption has on children?

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

Further, applicants for adoption should be accepted on the basis of an individual assessment of their capacity to understand and meet the needs of a particular available child at the point of adoption and in the future (Rosario, 2006, p.8). The United States is facing a critical shortage of adoptive and foster parents. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children in this country are without permanent homes. These children deteriorate for months, even years, within state foster care systems that lack qualified foster parents and are frequently faced with other problems.

     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