Advantages and the Disadvantages of Adoption in the Society - Essay Example

Adoption Adoption refers to the process where children are brought up under the care of adults who are not their biological parents. It involves the transfer of rights and obligations of the biological parents to the adoptive parents which means that the biological parents lose all the rights and obligations over the child (Haslanger and Charlotte 54). Initially and in most jurisdictions, adoption has always been carried out informally, but the process has now been formalized. Today, adoption processes are undertaken under the law in order to ensure that the best interests of the child are well-taken care of. This care is guaranteed to the child right from birth or from the moment the biological parents of the child cede control or ownership of the child. As adoption has become common in most societies, it continually draws debate on whether it is desirable or not in a society. Therefore, there are different points of views on the advantages and the disadvantages of adoption in the society. There have been claims that adoption leads to negative outcomes for the adopted child as the process is deemed dysfunctional. However, adoption is desirable and an unselfish act by adults who offer children that may have been deprived of love and care a chance to have parents that offer the same (Hindle and Graham 99). This is due to the fact that adoption offers the child the chance to grow up in a family who will guarantee him a good life. Adoption also positively transforms a child who may have been abandoned, neglected, orphaned, abused or unwanted by their parents. This ensures that these children live in a loving and caring family whereby they are nurtured in an established and loving environment. Therefore, adoption ensures that parents who may not have biological children of their own take advantage of raising children with love and care. Adoption is recommended by the society as it involves long and incisive processes that entail the screening of the adoptive parents in terms of their capabilities and character in making the life of the adopted child comfortable. For this reason, adopted children are usually guaranteed that their adoptive families will offer them good lives and care that they deserve (Baylis and Carolyn 141). The adoption also provides the children with the opportunities to enjoy the benefits of a stable family such as access to education and health care. It also helps them to get over and heal from the loss, trauma or grief that may be associated with being abandoned, orphaned or neglected that is related to the loss of connection to a family. In the long run, the adopted children enjoy the love and care of their parents and grow up to be responsible and compassionate adults who may grow to positively impact on the community. The exercise of adoption is important as it benefits both the adopted child and the adoptive parents or families. In the present world, most mothers especially the working class women are unwilling to take care of their children. This is because they believe that taking care of the children is time-consuming and may interfere with their career progression. In most situations, when a mother is unwilling to raise a child or does not have enough resources to take care of a child when born, they will resort to abortion. However, as adoptive mothers have the requisite resources and are willing to take up children for adoption at birth, they can be offered such an opportunity and this ensures that the birth mother does not procure an abortion. Adoption as an option lessens the risks associated with pregnancy and the probability of abortion. Therefore, adoption is an important act that can guarantee the life of the birth mother as well as the happiness of the adoptive mother. Adoption is recommended as it gives the adoptive parents the chance to become and exercise parental duties and obligations. For instance, couples who may have been deprived the chance to be parents through infertility or ones that have exceeded the child-bearing age but have no children may adopt to have a complete family. Through adoption, such parents can have a chance to realize their dreams of a family that has children, which can fulfill the desired joy of parenting. Similarly, adoption can have profound benefits to the government both at federal and state level. This benefit will be realized through the savings that may be realized on the costs that may have been used to take care of children who do not have parents either through being orphaned, neglected, abandoned or unwanted. Therefore, through the adoption of children by individual adoptive parents, the government will not be constrained to incur costs to meet the foster care and placement costs for these children (Goodwin 16). Through this, the government is able to realize short-term as well as long-term benefits for the child as well as the nation. However, adoption also has its opponents as it disrupts the historical past of the child. In most cases, hopeful adoptive parents are usually naïve and unaware of the past of the child who may have undergone a lot of trauma. This makes it difficult for the adopted children to integrate within the family in which they have been adopted. More often than not, such a child may resort to violence when their physical and emotional needs are not met by their adopted families. Further, adoption is undesirable as it has been used as a conduit for human trafficking (Shelley 244). This is especially true when the adoption process takes an international perspective whereby the adoption of the children is carried out across borders between two different nations. This goes against the long-held principles that advocate for humane treatment of children and the prohibition of trading in human beings for monetary benefits. This therefore means that the adoption when carried out in an unregulated manner can lead to the trafficking of humans to other nations who may be made to live in dangerous and inhuman situations. Abortion is also not desirable as it denies the children the basic right of attachment to their family of origin or where they were born. These opponents argue that in such nations where it is practiced like the United States, it has become a business venture whereby a baby may at times be sold as a product and not as a human being (Goodwin 102). Even though always disguised, some adoptions are carried out with prices attached on certain parameters such as the gender, race and the health of the baby. Adoption is also not desirable as it promises contact and update on the progression of the child but in most instances this is not implemented. Most mothers are misled to believe that the adoption law will guarantee this right but in most cases, the adoptive mothers feel that they have total control over the adopted child hence no need to update the biological mother of the child. The implication of this is that the adoption process ignores the biological mother of the adopted child once the adoptive mother has taken custody of the child. Adoption is also not desirable as it leads to the severing of the relationship between a child and the biological mother at times leads to lifelong damage to both the mother and the child. This is because the child may end up living with the negative effects that occur to his emotional well-being leading to cases of violence and disturbances. For the mother, the void left by giving over the custody of a child is usually difficult to fill and this may affect the mental state of such a mother. Therefore, the opponents of the adoption process hold the opinion that the child who is adopted will usually have serious problems in growing up well as opposed to children who are in their biological families of birth. In conclusion, it should it is noted that unless the adoption process is carried out well and with the interests of the child as the major factor of consideration, then the adoptive child may not benefit from the love and care of the adoptive family. Therefore, any adoption must ensure that the child easily fits into the new family and lives a normal life as children who are born in their own biological families. Works Cited Baylis, Françoise, and Carolyn McLeod. Family-making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Print. Goodwin, Michele. Baby Markets: Money and the New Politics of Creating Families. Cambridge [U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Haslanger, Sally A, and Charlotte Witt. Adoption Matters: Philosophical and Feminist Essays. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 2005. Print. Hindle, Debbie, and Graham Shulman. The Emotional Experience of Adoption: A Psychoanalytic Perspective. New York, NY: Routledge, 2008. Print. Shelley, Louise I. Human Trafficking : A Global Perspective. New York, N.Y. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Read More