Psychological Issues in Adoption - Research Paper Example

English 102-043 30 September Adoption Introduction In the last few decades, the concept of family in the American society has radically changed. Society is witnessing emergence of a wide range of family structures. They include single parent families, same sex parent families, and ‘adoptive families’, a term used for any family which legally adopts one or more children from other families. One of the emerging trends in American families is adoption. More families in the American society are engaging in adoption. Adoptive families may have white parents and non-white children or non-white families with white children. Adoption is the process where an individual assumes the parenting responsibilities over a child who is not his/her biological child, and in doing so, transfers all the rights of parenthood from the biological parents (Brodzinsky & Jesús 37) . Statistics indicate that the adoption rate has gone up since 1900s. For instance, in 1944, a total of 50,000 adoptions were carried out in the United States. In the year 1970, the highest number of adoptions was witnessed in the US, where there were a total of 175,000 children who were adopted. According to the US Census Bureau, about 128,000 were adopted by the Americans in 2000 (Brodzinsky & Jesús 44). In the same year, the total adopted population in the United States reached 2,058,915. An Overview of Adoption and its Effects There are two main forms of adoption. They are the open adoption and the closed adoption. Open adoption involves adoptive and biological parents interacting in the adoption process. In this type of adoption, the adopted child gets a chance to know her true biological parents and the child can get occasional visits from the parents. However, this has to be agreed between the adoptive and biological parents (Healey 56). There can also be a legal binding between the two sets of parents on how they are supposed to take care of the child. Open adoption allows for the two sets of parents to meet and share information about the child. Open adoption offers a child an extended family where both the adoptive and biological parents are present in the life of the adopted child. Statistics indicate that there is an increase in open adoption in the US, despite the challenges that are associated with this form of adoption (Healey 60). Closed adoption hides all identification information. No information on the biological parents, the child, or the adoptive parents is divulged to the other party. The biological parents never know who adopted their child while the adoptive parents also do not get to know the biological parents of their adopted child or children. To ensure total secrecy of the adoption process in the closed type of suggestion, there was a practice where parents who wanted their children adopted were asked to leave their babies somewhere where they can be picked and given to parents who want to adopt a child (Brodzinsky and Jesús 24). Closed type of adoption works best when the adopted child is still an infant. This ensures that the child has no knowledge of his/her biological. This is normally done to avoid distress among the adopted children because of being taken away from their families. Legal Issues involved with Adoption The federal government enacted a number of laws that govern the adoption process. One of the laws concerns the consent to adoption. The law provides that the biological parents are the one who possess the right to consent on the adoption of the child. However, in the absence of the parents, or in a situation where the parents are not a capacity to make decisions, other legal entities such as an agency that acts as the custodian, a guardian of the child and the ruling by the court. There are however also other instances where the adoption of a child can be revoked. The law allows the revocation of an adoption under certain circumstances (Verbrugge 95). One of the circumstances under which the law provides that the adoption is revoked is when the adoption is through fraud. This is can be a case where there is false provision of information pertaining the child or the parents. Another circumstance where revocation of an adoption is allowed by the law is when there is mutual consent between biological and adoptive parents that the adoption should be revoked. This works only under open adoption. The court can also decide to revoke an adoption if it is realized that it will be in the best interest of the child. For instance, adoption may affect a child negatively. This is especially if the child is adopted at an older age. If it is realized that the child is finding it hard to fit in the new family and it is stressing him/her, the court may allow the revoke of the adoption (Jerry & Bacon 78). Revocation of an adoption can also occur in a situation where there was an agreement between biological and adoptive parents that the adoption can be revoked within a certain period. If one of the parents feels that it is necessary to revoke the adoption within that time frame, then court allows for the adoption to be revoked. Another law that pertains adoption is the infant safe haven law. This law provides that mothers can leave their babies at designated places for adoption. Throughout the US in all states, there are specific places where mothers can go and leave their babies if they wish their babies to be adopted. These places are known as safe havens for babies. The law provides that it is only mothers who can be allowed to take babies to the safe havens (Fisanick 74). This allows the babies to be given to good families for adoption. There are also laws that protect adopted children against child abuse. They include Adoption and Safe Families Act, Child Abuse Amendments, Child Abuse Prevention Act, and Keeping Children and Families Safe Act. These acts and laws are aimed at ensuring that children, whether adopted or living with their biological parents are protected from violence and abuse. Such laws ensure that adoptive parents do not abuse and mistreat their adopted children. Ethical Issues in Adoption and Adoption has a number of ethical issues that normally emerge. In a society where adoption is an accepted practice, some people go to great lengths to adopt a child. This includes using dubious means to obtain a child. One of the ethical issues in child adoption in the American society is baby buying and selling. Some desperate couples resort to buying babies in the name of adoption (Verbrugge 34). Unscrupulous judges who give couples the go ahead to adopt children without even assessing their suitability as parents normally aid this. Other people also engage in baby trade in the pretense of offering their babies for adoption. For instance, young women use this opportunity to gain money from unwanted pregnancies. Young women get pregnant only to offer their babies for sale after birth. This issue of adoption has made some unethical people to turn it into business (Verbrugge 38). There is also the issue of government support. The federal government normally gives adoptive parents financial support when they adopt a child. Some people are using this opportunity to exploit the government. Some masquerade as genuine prospective adoptive parents. Some of them end up being approved for adopting a child. However, their main aim is not to adopt the child but rather to get benefits from the government. Such parents end up not taking care of the adopted child because their main interest is not the child but the money being offered to adoptive parents for adopting the unfortunate children in society (Brodzinsky and Jesus142). The costs incurred to adopt has been also cited as an ethical issue in the adoption process. For one to adopt a child, he/she is required to pay the sliding fees. However, some people argue that this is a form of baby selling because it involves payment of some fee for one to adopt a child. This has made this payment to be banned in some states. For instance, in the state of pennyslavania, couples are not needed to pay anything to adopt a child. The most controversial issue in the adoption process is the issue of transracial adoption. This issue has elicited much debate as to whether it is the right thing to do or not. Transracial adoption involves couples adopting children from other races. This especially occurs among white parents who adopt black and other colored children. Some people argue that for one to bring up a child, he/she needs to show unconditional love to that child. Some argue that love is not enough especially if the adopted child is from a different race. Proponents of transracial adoption argue that there is nothing wrong with the practice, citing that children can easily adapt to the environment where their parents are of a different race (Hiber 96). They argue that it is the work of the adoptive parents to ensure that the adopted child fits well in the family. They further argue that an adopted child will not feel any loss of identity or culture, especially if the child was adopted at an early age. This is because, they argue, culture is not about the origin of an individual, but rather the environment in which one is brought up. Opponents of transracial adoption argue that transracial adoption removes the adopted child from a familiar environment that he/she is used to. This results to loss of culture and identity to the child. This group also cites emotional distress as another consequence of transracial adoption. They argue that children who are adopted by racially different parents normally get stressed especially when they grow up. This is because they notice the difference between them and their adoptive parents (Brodzinsky and Jesus 37). This difference makes these children to start seeking for identity and this leads to distress. Other people see transracial adoption as a way for white people to get double benefits. These people view the move by white people to adopt children as a hypocritical way of trying to show that they are good and virtuous. These skeptical groups read mischief in this gesture rather than just a kind gesture of wanting to take care of an unfortunate child (Russell 93). Others go to an extent of claiming that this is a move to atone for the mistreatment the whites have subjected the black people to. Generally, the issue of adoption has resulted to a number of ethical issues and debates on how best the process should be carried out. Apart from adoption that is done on children with their biological parents and abandoned children, there is also adoption from foster homes. Some people look for children in foster homes for adoption. Most of the children who end up in foster homes are the ones that were mostly abandoned or those who lived with abusive parents (Verbrugge 60). Some of the parents who give up their children to foster homes are drug addicts, making them unfit for taking care of these children. Some of these parents are forced by the government to relinquish their rights as parents (Verbrugge, 66). Adoption from foster homes has also its benefits and challenges. One of the benefits is that it eases the burden of the government. The government spends a lot of money to run children homes. Adoption of these children therefore the burden on the government because the care shifts from the government to individuals. Conclusion In conclusion, adoption has become a part of everyday life especially in the American culture. A lot of children are adopted and raised in the normal families. Most of these children would have otherwise been homeless and destitute in life. Adoption takes legal processes meaning that it is being advocated by the government especially from the Acts mentioned in the paper. There are a lot of benefits that result from adoption. However, there are few set backs especially on the issue of transracial adoption where critics argue that it removes these children from familiar environments. However, there have been so many cases of transracial adoptions that have gone right. All in all adoption is aimed at giving these kids a better life in a normal family. They grow in a healthy manner and eventually become responsible adults. Works Cited Brodzinsky, David, and Jesús Palacios. Psychological Issues in Adoption: Research and Practice. Westport: Praeger, 2005. Print. Brodzinsky, David M, Anne B. Dudley, Fisanick, Christina. Issues in adoption. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print. Healey, Justin. Adoption Issues. Thirroul, N.S.W: The Spinney Press, 2011. Print. Hiber, Amanda. Are Adoption Policies Fair? Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Print. Jerry, Johnson. Allyn& Bacon Casebook series, ISBN 0205389546, xii, 122 Adoption, Social case work, Child welfare, Family social work 2007, Print. Russell, Marlou. Adoption Wisdom: A Guide to the Issues and Feelings of Adoption. Santa Monica, Calif: Broken Branch Productions, 2006. Print. Verbrugge, Allen. Adoption. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press/Thomson Gale, 2006. Print. Read More