Adoption

ADOPTION

Adoption is a legal process in which a child’s legal rights and duties towards his natural parents are terminated and similar duties and rights are given to the child’s adoptive parents. At the end of the adoption, the child’s “biological parents” or “birth parents” no longer have any legal rights or responsibilities to the child. The “adoptive parents” now posses all the legal rights to this child as if they had been born to them. Adoption, un known in common law, was first created in the United States through an 1851 Massachusetts statute. By 1931 every state in the union had passed adoption laws, and by 1985 each of the states had extended these laws to include transracial adoption as well as same-race adoptions.

There are many reasons why someone would want to adopt a child. Perhaps a couple cannot conceive and bear children themselves. In other cases, a family wishes to share their lives with a child with special needs, also in times of tragedy if a family member dies they may leave a young child to be taken care of. Each situation is different however; the legal procedure for the adoption is basically the same. Today adoption laws require investigation or evaluation of fitness of the potential adoptive parents. States have created agencies or required state officers to make investigation for the judge. It was not until the nineteenth century that states began to show concern for the welfare or for the “best interest” of the children who were being adopted. The adoption process is governed by fifty state laws for the concern of family background. Since the rules and procedures in one state may be different than the rules and procedures in another state the adoptive parents should consult a lawyer familiar with the laws of the state or states involved to be sure everything goes as planned.

There are many different types of adoptions; one of the types I will be discussing is agency adoptions. Agency adoptions are adoptions that are held by some type of agency. Agency adoptions are thought to be evolved from orphanages. In the United States today adoption agencies do not resemble to orphanage. The agency still takes the responsibility for finding adoptive parents. A major advantage of adoption agencies is that they are aware of the main common pitfalls of adoptions and how to avoid them.

Attorney adoptions allow birth parents as well as the adoptive parents to have more control over their adoption without the agency structure. The attorney is responsible for the legal, social, and financial aspects of the case. The advantage of an attorney adoption is that it includes flexibility in meeting the requests of the birth and adoptive parents. The Attorney’s role is to be the facilitator between the birth parents and the adoptive parents. A disadvantage is that they do not provide any adoption counseling and some lawyers are not experienced in this area. Persons working with this type of adoption should learn the background and experience of the lawyer.

Relative adoptions are adoptions where the child is related to the adoptive parents by blood or by marriage. A relative adoption is simpler than an agency or attorney adoption. Almost all states allow the birth parents to place a child for adoption with relatives without agency involvement. In many states the relative does not need to be certified, or approved, to adopt. However, relative adoptions present different emotional issues than non-relative adoptions, such as what the child should call this adoptive parent if the adoptive parent is his or her grandparents. These emotional issues should be addressed in counseling. The most common example of relative adoption is a stepparent adoption. Adoptions between an aunt and niece, or a grandparent and grandchild are also common.

If I were a birth parent who had to put my child up for adoption for the reason that I could not care for him or her properly at the time, relative adoption would be my first choice. As the birth parent I would want nothing but the best for her child and in my opinion a relative that is chosen by the birth parent would be unsurpassed. By choosing relative adoption I am also protecting the child’s best interest in retaining a relationship with his or her blood family, which would be as important to me as it is for the child.

I also have some first hand experience with adoption myself. I had a baby at a very young age, my boyfriend at the time also was young, we had decided to have the baby and not have an abortion. We had a turbulent relationship due to our families opinions about things like where we would live, what the babies last name would be, and wither or not we would be getting