Free Essays on Adoption

Adoption When a person decides to adopt, he takes the responsibility of raising a child who is not biologically his own. There are various reasons why people decide to adopt. Some say adoption is the best thing for certain children and many successful stories prove it to be true. However, there are also numerous tragic reports of adopted children being abused. â€Å"Basically, what adoption meant, and still means, is that someone (the adoptive couple) is promising to assume all responsibilities for taking care of someone else† (Powledge 4). How the adoptive parents go about raising the child is completely up to them. Although there are many different types of families in today’s society, one special kind of family that has become more and more common are the families created through adoption. There are various and somewhat difficult processes and laws concerning adoption. New laws are being created year after year to make this process easier and the outcome positive. Adoption is not exactly new; the idea of adopting has been around for a long time. â€Å"The oldest written set of laws is the Babylonian Code of Hammarabi, which contains a long, sophisticated section on adoption† (Benet 23). It is hard to pin point when and how adoption first originated but Governor Sir William Philips of Massachusetts was considered the first adoptive father in the original thirteen colonies, he adopted in 1693 (Academic XXI). Americans adopt more than 100,000 kids a year (Harnack 13). This may seem like a large number of adoptive families but there are still over 400,000 kids left in foster care or in shelters. With this in mind it seems like Americans should be desperate to place the homeless kids in a family. But through trial and error it has become known that only certain famil ies should be allowed to adopt and in some cases kids are better off left in foster care. â€Å"In 1917 Minnesota was the first state to require an agency or state welfare ... Free Essays on Adoption Free Essays on Adoption Adopting a child is an experience that promises to bring great joy as it changes a couple or individual’s life forever. But what happens if the mother of that child wants to endorse their child? Those are the issues that many adopting parents and birth-right mothers are facing today. Many biological mothers want their child back. There are many concerns for adopting parents to know- that there is the possibly that the birth mother may file for the child. As a birth mother or the adopting parent one must realize consequences that could lay ahead. The legal and social transfer of all parental right, responsibilities, and roles from one parent or parents, usually biological, to a nonbiological parent or parents is the definition of adoption. In such a transfer, adoptive parents accept the same rights and responsibilities as the child’s birth parents would have had, while the child becomes a member of a family that provides the social, emotional, and physical nurturing that children needs to grow up to be healthy, functioning adults. But there are some legal issues or opinions that can lead to a halting backfire in the adoption process. But, as the biological parent(s) and adopting parent(s), they must be ready for the quickly, approaching pros and cons. Throughout the adoption journey, the gardein must be prepared and know what is best for them and their child. There are many positive feedbacks to adoption. Children are in need of adoption because some birth parents are unable or unavailable to provide adequately for the needs of their child. Birth parents may feel they cannot take on the responsibility of an unplanned child because they are too young or because they are financially or emotionally unable to provide proper care. They do not feel ready or able to be good parents. Most adopting parents, although, feel confident that most birth-right mothers will not seize their child back. Chris Intagliata, a mother of two adopted... Free Essays on Adoption Adoption Ever since the Pharaoh’s daughter plucked the baby Moses from the bulrushes of the Nile and raised him as her son, adoption has been a part of our civilization (Lasnik 5). Every parent possesses certain rights and responsibilities to his or her child. The law grants these rights and imposes these responsibilities from the moment the child is born. If a parent does not wish to fulfill these obligations, they may opt to place their child up for adoption. Adoption is the legal process by which these rights and responsibilities are given to a person to whom is willing to take that child as their own, and love and care for that child that was not born unto them (Sifferman 1). Adoption is a topic that many are uniformed on. To truly understand adoption, one must understand topics such as, why people adopt, who can adopt, special adoptions, the overall adoption process, and post-adoption adjustments. One specialist talked about why someone would choose to adopt by saying â€Å"often times couples choose to look into adoption for a variety of reasons.† One reason may or may not be because a couple are not able to have a baby together and want to love and care for a child. Sometimes couples already have children of their own, but still want to adopt another child because they love children so much (Luther Online). Another specialist once emphasized that most adoptions are made because couples want to either start a family or expand a family. Although some adoptions take place because a couple may want to get a child out of a particular lifestyle and give him or her better opportunities in life (Goldstein 36). Sifferman has often commented on why a parent might choose to place their child up for adoption. There are many reasons why birthparents choose adoption. Many singles mothers feel their child could benefit from having two stable parents, so they choose to put their child up for adoption. Some couples choose to pu... Free Essays on Adoption Adoption When a person decides to adopt, he takes the responsibility of raising a child who is not biologically his own. There are various reasons why people decide to adopt. Some say adoption is the best thing for certain children and many successful stories prove it to be true. However, there are also numerous tragic reports of adopted children being abused. â€Å"Basically, what adoption meant, and still means, is that someone (the adoptive couple) is promising to assume all responsibilities for taking care of someone else† (Powledge 4). How the adoptive parents go about raising the child is completely up to them. Although there are many different types of families in today’s society, one special kind of family that has become more and more common are the families created through adoption. There are various and somewhat difficult processes and laws concerning adoption. New laws are being created year after year to make this process easier and the outcome positive. Adoption is not exactly new; the idea of adopting has been around for a long time. â€Å"The oldest written set of laws is the Babylonian Code of Hammarabi, which contains a long, sophisticated section on adoption† (Benet 23). It is hard to pin point when and how adoption first originated but Governor Sir William Philips of Massachusetts was considered the first adoptive father in the original thirteen colonies, he adopted in 1693 (Academic XXI). Americans adopt more than 100,000 kids a year (Harnack 13). This may seem like a large number of adoptive families but there are still over 400,000 kids left in foster care or in shelters. With this in mind it seems like Americans should be desperate to place the homeless kids in a family. But through trial and error it has become known that only certain famil ies should be allowed to adopt and in some cases kids are better off left in foster care. â€Å"In 1917 Minnesota was the first state to require an agency or state welfare ... Free Essays on Adoption At the present time, facing the issue of adoption ethics forces us to confront a highly uncomfortable situation. This case is especially true of international adoptions. A critical analysis of adoption practices as they relate to adoption within Canada as well as between Canada and Romania will follow. Encompassed within this will be the changing trends that have occurred with regards to the rights of the child and privacy of information exchanged between the adopting parties. In this field the rights of the child are not always clear cut and obvious. In recent years, the issue of opening sealed adoption records has presented a challenge to secrecy and anonymity. The implications for community rehabilitation practitioners are numerous. Nowhere has a shift of values and powers been more apparent than in the practice of adoption. Intercountry Adoption Intercountry adoption has become an important social policy issue in Canada. Almost unheard of until post World War II period, the numbers have grown from less than 10 a year when records were first kept in 1970 (Altstein, 1991) to an estimate of more than 2400 a year in 2001 (Tepper, T. et al. 2002). This means that nonrelative adoptions in Canada are now as likely to involve children who were born outside of Canada as those born within Canada. Most of the children from out-of-country have a different racial background. The question for policymakers, service deliverers, prospective adoptive parents, and biological parents deciding whether to relinquish their child, is whether there is enough information exchanged or not in the best interests of the child. With the increase in the number of children being adopted internationally, and the shift in the primary motivation for adoption, discussion has surfaced with respect to what Tizard (1991) has called the â€Å"morality† of intercountry adoption. Three major positions have emerged in the debate; one which opposes intercountry adoption,...