Opening Records For Curiosity Reasons

The majority of the children awaiting adoption are not simply sitting in institutions with little human contact and no sense of family. Most children waiting to be adopted are in foster care. Foster care provides temporary placement in a family setting. "Over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently reside in some form of foster care" (Foster). This is not to say that there are over 500,000 children waiting for adoptive parents. Actually, the number needing to be adopted ends up being much lower. "Two out of three children who enter foster care are reunited with their birth parents within two years. A significant number, however, can spend long periods of time in care awaiting adoption or other permanent arrangement" (Foster).

In 1966, American Family adopted Deann Borshay Liem from an orphanage in Korea. She struggled to become more like her adoptive family. The memory of her family was nearly erased; until, she recurred her past, and decided to investigate it. After long times, she discovered that her Korean mother was still alive. She thought that it is so hard to tell adoptive mother about a real mother.

May cause different emotions for adopted child as they have the right to know their origins

When a couple or individual decides to adopt a child, they know they are going to take on the responsibility of taking care of someone else’s child. Due to the biological parent(s) who can’t take care of that child anymore, because of either drug abuse, alcohol abuse, abuse to the child or if the parent(s) had died and there is no other care for the child. So that’s why this gives other couples who cannot have kids, the opportunity to promise themselves to be a great parent to a child in need. Though there are some bad things about adoption as well. Like adopting a child from another country of another race, because once that child is adopted into an American family, he or she will be cut off from their culture and never know about their

Closed adoptions allow birth parents privacy and to remain unidentified. Closed adoptions can also help birth parents with the grieving process because closed adoptions provide a sense of closure and the ability to move on with their lives. They get a new beginning (“Open”). In an open adoption, the birth parents are involved in the child’s life, which can act as a constant reminder that the child is no longer legally theirs, which can cause more grieving and sadness for the birth parents (Byrd).

Ann Fessler tells about her personal experiences with adoption during the 1950s and 60s in the beginning of the book. The author writes about herself being adopted and dealing with the difficult reality of finding her birth mother. Within the first couple of pages, Fessler says, “My adoptive mother and father were offered very little information about my biological parents.”(2) and “...after forty years of life as an adoptee I was hearing the other side of the story for the first time.”(3). Fessler explaining her past and her personal experience with adoption is one of her examples that give her ethos. Fessler was never given the chance to meet her birth mother which shows again how the lack of control caused these women's situations to worsen. After having the credibility to tell these girls’ stories, Fessler continued to bring the issue to light.

Kristi was born in 1972. Kristi spent her childhood in the years 1972-1985 and her teenage years from 1985-1990. There are five people in her family, including two parents, Nancy and Harlan, and two sisters, Roxanne and Michelle in that order with Kristi being the youngest daughter. A typical day in Kristi’s life while in high school was to wake up, go to school, go to sports practice after school, come home, eat supper, do homework, and then go to bed for the next day.

During the early 1900s, the large majority of adoptions in the United States were closed. In the Western world many thought that the way to make adoptions a natural part of forming a family was by completely severing the links between the adoptee and his biological family and for birth parents and adoptees to remain unknown to each other. It was thought that severing these links made the newly formed family appear to be a biological family, which was assumed to be the ideal family

In multiple cases involving young teenagers, they talk about how finding their birth parents helps them to know who they are. Even though many adoptees do not want to find their birth parents because of they fear rejection, that could just show their commitment to actually finding their birth parents. To start, “three years ago, Florence Ladden Fisher was in an automobile accident. Her last thought before the crash, ‘I am going to die and I do not know who I am.’ Mrs. Fisher, a wife and mother now in her early 40’s, had spent almost 20 years searching for what she called her ‘true identity.’ She was an adopted child. She has found that ‘most people, especially adoptive parents’ cannot understand the compelling need for identity experienced by many of the adopted children” (Nemy). This was from the New York Times article, “Adopted Children Who Wonder 'What Was Mother Like?'”, and it shows exactly how much finding your birth parents can impact your identity. Also, stories like Tom McGee show some of the real reasons people try and find their birth parents. Later in the same article about Carol Barbieri, it said, “Adoptees like Tom McGee of Oceanport said the fight to obtain access to their original birth records is more about finding their identity--knowing who they are and their medical history--than it is about reuniting with their biological family” (Cervenka). So, Tom McGee wasn’t

As an adoptee, I feel that all adoption records should be open. I believe that this can only strengthen the quality of the

First, adoptees have the right to have access to original birth certificates because they have questions. Questions about their health, questions about who they came, who they got their blue eyes from, and other such things. As Melinda Elkins Dawson, one of 200 newborns relocated to other states for adoption in Georgia in the 50’s and 60’s says, “Every adopted child has questions.” Adoptees, especially adoptees who are older, feel empty spaces in their history, and they want to be able to fill them. “We don’t have a history. Our history begins the day we were adopted into a new family… It’s important to know where you came from.” Bob MacNish says, of how not knowing your past, which makes an empty slate until you get adopted. As it says above, all adoptees have questions, and an

Loulou, also known as Lou, was a thirteen year old who was adopted at a very young age. She was in a car accident with her birth-parents on their way home from a summer trip. She was safe in her car seat, but what she didn’t know was that her parents were badly injured. When they were sent to the hospital, Lou never saw them again. Lou was sent to an adoption center. After a couple of months, her current parents, Mary Tye and Sam Tye, adopted her.

Open adoption actively involves the three affected parties ¨C birthparents, child, and adoptive parents. The adoptive parents want a child of their own to care for and to love as their own but on the other hand the birthparents are feeling guilt and sadness at the loss of their child and might want to see their child on a regular basis. There are a lot of things to consider during the process of adoption.

Moreover, there is a strategic interview and background check on those who wish to adopt. We do not let just anyone adopt a child, nor do we go without checking up on his or her history to predict the likelihood of that person being a good candidate for a parent. There are forms to be filled out, house inspection, and an overview of their income to make sure they are suitable to take in and care for this child. According to a study published by the Child Welfare League of America, despite

Most of the time it is nearly impossible to receive full information on their birth family. In many cases these children experience the loss of important medical history and genetics. Adopted children are fragile individuals that can get hurt easily. At times simply taking an adopted child to the doctors for questions and a physical it is possible to make them feel pain and have awkward feelings because they are not exactly the same as their adopted family. That shows them that they are different and came from somewhere