Adoptive v. Birth Parents' Legal Rights

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Adoptive v. Birth Parents' Legal Rights

This issue hits home with me, I am adopted. I believe that a child's parents are the people who raise them and take care of them. I do not believe that birth parents have any rights to their children after the child has been adopted and living with their adoptive parents. The biological parents made a decision when they put the child up for adoption, for whatever the reason may have been. Just because they feel that their lives are more "stable" and "together" does not give them the right to rip a child from the only parents that child knows. By doing this the biological parents destroy not only the life of the child but also the lives of the adoptive parents who have worked so hard to have a child to call their own. I feel that biological parents should not have this right because it is based purely on selfish reasons and it destroys all the lives involved. In the next few paragraphs, I intend to discuss some famous rulings of recent adoption cases, and the horrible outcomes that followed.

In these days adoption has become extremely hard for couples looking to adopt children for fear that the adoptions can come undone. Two of the most recent, highly publicized and heart-wrenching cases in this country that have spurred this fear in perspective adoptive parents are the cases of "Baby Jessica" of Michigan, and "Baby Richard" of Illinois. In both of these cases, a child was adopted and then ordered by the courts to be given back to the biological parents.

The widely publicized "Baby Jessica case gripped the emotions of the nation as the natural parents (Dan and Cara Schmidt) of Iowa sought to regain custody of their daughter from the adoptive parents (Jan and Robert DeBoer) of Mic...

... middle of paper ...

... Cited

1) Baron, Roger M. "Child Custody Suits: Litigating Heartbreak." USA

Today MagazineJan. 95: p72.

2) Blum, Andrew. "Digging deep." Adoptive Families Nov./Dec. 96:p21.

3) Gray, Alec. "Birthfathers and Legal Risks." Adoptive Families Mar./Apr.

96: p18.

4) Grogan, David, and Fannie Weinstein. "Life after Jessica." People 5 Sept.

94: p46.

5) Ingrassia, Michele, and John McCormick. "Ordered to Surrender."

Newsweek 6 Feb. 95: p44.

6) "Legislative Update." Adoptive Families Mar./Apr. 96:p7.

7) Miller-Havens, Susan. "Nature Over Nurture." World & I Dec 93:p102.

8) Shapiro, Joseph P. "Bonds that Blood and Birth Cannot Assure." U.S.

News & World Report 9 Aug. 93:p12.

9) Wilson, Pat A. "Sunflower Birthmoms seek to change Adoption laws."

The News-Journal 25 Mar. 98 www.aol.com 11 Nov. 99

http://members.aol.com/idodc/newspaper.html.

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