TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION In the last two decades due to globalization, the influence of technology and the change of family values interracial or transracial adoption has increased quite rapidly. Transracial adoption (TRA) consists on adopting a child that is of a different race or religious background than that of the adoptive parents. Transracial adoption has become a popular practice, especially after Hollywood celebrities, such as Madonna or Angelina Jolie started to adopt children of other countries. In spite of this, it is not without its issues. The main difficulty regarding TRA was the placement of native (aborigines) and black children with white parents. In the United States these concerns have been addressed through the Indian Child …show more content…
Regarding its benefits, Morrison (2004) states that “TRA helps find homes for children who would otherwise be denied the benefits of a permanent and healthy home, either for a significant period of time or, often, forever” (p. 187), in this sense, waiting for adoptive parents of a certain race, ethnicity or religious background to come to adopt children jeopardizes their opportunities to be adopted, therefore causing millions of children around the world to remain without homes and in that way going against their best interest that in this case is providing them with a loving , caring and supporting family. Another benefit of TRA is as stated by Bartholet (1991) TRA children have a “healthier acceptance of the fact that their family is in various other ways not the same as a biological family” (p. 1180). Moreover, children who are adopted into diverse families find it easier to accept and speak about being adopted, thus leading to the creation of stronger bonds and communication among families, increasing their stability, acceptance, trust and understanding, which is ultimately the goal in adoptive …show more content…
I completely agree with adoption, but in this case I think it is important that parents/adults who wish to adopt a child with a different ethnicity, race, or religious background than their own prepare themselves for the many challenges they are going to face, and to do research about their child ethic-racial background so that they can be in touch with who they are and finally to be ready for the many challenges they may face. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Morrison, A. (2004). Transracial adoption: The pros and cons and the parents' perspective. Harv. BlackLetter LJ, 20, 167. 2. Bartholet, E. (1991). Where do black children belong? The politics of race matching in adoption. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 139(5), 1163-1256. 3. Smith, S., McRoy, R., Freundlich, M., & Kroll, J. (2008). Finding families for African American children: The role of race and law in adoption from foster care. Retrieved November 6, 2017. 4. Herman, E. (2003). The Adoption History Project: A new on-line resource. History of psychology, 6(4),
judges generally do not have and are not given relevant psychological insights that would aid decision. The "rules of thumb" of parental fitness and best interests of the child constitute the black letter law of custody. Two highly publicized cases that are both seen as "wrongly decided" and that were reversed by subsequent events or legislation are examined: Painter Bannister in Iowa and the "Baby Lenore" case, in which a Florida court refused to give full faith and credit to a prior New York decision and a later New York decision overruled the earlier decision. In the Painter case, the father was denied custody of ins child in favor of the maternal grandparents, who were able to provide a more affluent home. In the "Baby Lenore" case the natural mother, after having given the child up for adoption, was first awarded custody and later denied custody in favor of the adoptive parents who had cared for the child since it had been 1 -month-old. In the Iowa case there was no £ct or event that had the effect of terminating parental rights. In the New York case there was such an event Baby Lenore's surrender for adoption through an agency. To better safeguard the interests of the child
Copyright (c) 2005 Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law, 2005, 12 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 371, 13986 words, SYMPOSIUM: THE STATE CONSTRUCTION OF FAMILIES: FOSTER CARE, TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS, AND ADOPTION: FROM ANTICIPATION TO EVIDENCE: RESEARCH ON THE ADOPTION
Adoption is in place to balance, to nurture and create a structural environment of safety in which the child can thrive and develop into a productive individual contributing to society. Also, it allows older children to abandon old maladaptive behaviors and make their first steps toward the construction of new behaviors influenced by their new environment. In years past, parents who adopted a child as an infant often debated whether to tell him or her about the adoption. Many children grew up not knowing they were adopted, and the birth mother’s identity was kept secret from those who did know (Ashford, LeCroy and Lortie 249). This paper provides facts on widely acceptance option of open adoption rather than the traditional practice of closed adoption. Adoption separates real biological family members, removing the adopter heritage whether the adoption is open or closed. Open adoption can lead to problems, but there are proven facts that open adoption is the best option for all parties working together in the best interest of the children.
Interracial adoption means placing a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. In the United States these terms usually refer to the placement of children of color with white adoptive parents. Interracial adoption in America are seen less as a taboo today, but as out of the norm.. Even though “the U.S. Adopts more children... domestically, than the rest of the world combined.”[ Adam Pertman, Adoption Nation (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Common Press, 2011).] It is also prevalent to mention that White Americans serve overwhelmingly as the adopting race and also exercise the most control in the adoption process.[ David Ray Papke, 'Transracial Adoption In The United States: The Reflection And Reinforcement Of Racial Hierarchy ', SSRN Journal (2013).] Their white privilege continues into
Transracial adoption has a lengthy history of controversies. Transracial adoption wasn’t always legal, and in the beginning of 1968, the government passed a law that allowed permitted families to adopt outside their race ("Family Law."). Almost instantly people objected to this law, and a black nationalist group known as National Association of Black Social Workers
The analysis explored in this document is implementing a program UNIT for parents adopting a different race from their own. Adopting outside of a race is a life altering decision because of regulating mechanisms that condition people to accept or reject individuals based on their appearances. There are not any programs that guide transracial adoptions after they occur. Society as a whole has its own prejudices. The adoptive parents should know about their children’s cultural backgrounds. Society is not very conscience of prejudging it is just something that is a part of life. This is unfortunately one more issue dealt with by adopted children.
Smith, J.F. (1996). Analyzing Ethical Conflict in the Transracial Adoption Debate: Three Conflicts Involving Community. Hypatia, 11, no. 2, 1
Trans-racial adoption has been and continues to be on the rise in many parts of the world. Throughout the years numerous questions pertaining to race and ethnicity have been raised. Ethnicity can be defined as a common belief that people with the same ancestry and genealogy should be associated together. While people of the same origin share common sociological aspects, people of the same race share a biological connection. Races are considered to be people who share many aspects of life, like the color of their skin and a common nationalism. A social class of people can be defined as individuals in a society who share the same socioeconomic status. It is a way to describe the social stratification of people in a society. It also gives remedial measures on coping with the issues of racial, religious and gender discrimination along with negative ethnicity that individuals may be faced when adopting a trans-racial child. This research paper covers the adoption of trans-racial children in regards to racism. There is also a discussion on the aspect of divorce in Canada. The following issues that lead to adoption are also included: The issues of poverty, and the experience of infertility.
Some people think that race should never be a consideration--that "perfect vision is color blind.” Others feel that in an imperfect world where color matters, transracial adoptions are a kind of genocide that leave children unprepared to survive in a racist society. Robert Dale Morrison, a professor at Harvard Law School, sums up what interracial adoption is all about, “The quickest cure for racism would be to have everyone in the country adopt a child of another race. No matter what your beliefs, when you hold a four-day-old infant, love him, and care for him, you don’t see skin color, you see a little person that is very much in need of your love.” If everyone thought this way, a child would not go unwanted. This issue on race and the wellbeing of a child due to the color of their skin and where they are from, would not be a major part of adoption
Black children are disproportionately represented in the foster care system. In the most recent Statistical Abstract published in 2011 by the U.S. Census Bureau, Black children accounted for 15% of the U.S. child population in 2009. In contrast, Black children were at almost 30% of the total number of children in foster care for the same year according to the Department of Health and Human Services 2009 Foster Care report. In addition, there are not enough Black families available to adopt these children. Interracial adoption advocates often hail it as a good solution to address these problems. Interracial adoption is promoted as a major step towards an integrated, unprejudiced, and colorblind society. However, instead of healing the wounds of racism, interracial adoption often contributes to racist ideologies and practices that devalue family relationships in the Black community (Roberts 50). This type of adoption is a surface only solution that fails to dig deeper and address the underlying reasons for the disproportionate representation of Black children in foster care and the lack of minority adoptive parents. This deeper analysis exposes a system of that is very biased against the Black community in the adoption industry. Even when it is altruistic, interracial adoption is mostly detrimental to the Black community because it aids in the breakdown of Black families and the dismissal of the root causes of the circumstances that lead to large numbers of Black children needing to be adopted in the first place. Furthermore, interracial adoption has not made any significant difference in lowering the numbers of Black children in foster care.
As issues that affect children enthuse intense interest and emotion it is unsurprising that transracial adoption; the joining together of racially or ethnically different parents and children in an adoptive family, is a subject that is fraught with controversy. Transracial adoption not only raises the question of the how much power should the state have to affect individual choices with respect to family life it also questions the level of state assistance given to families in trouble before removing parents from their parents. It also highlights issue of race within the context of the family with advocates seeing trans-racial adoption as a harbinger of hope, believing that if different races can love each other as a family then there is hope for the relationship between different races in society (Moe, 2007; Perry, 1996). Whereas, radical opponents claim that white society is racist and that transracial adoption is a hostile manifestation of white power and believe that ethnic minority communities should have the right to decide the fate of ethnic minority children (Hayes, 1995).
Same-sex relationships and same-sex adoption is extremely relevant today. Either on the news or newspaper articles we see same-sex couples file lawsuit against courts and adoption agencies for discriminating sexual preference. The “regular” same-sex couples along with the “Hollywood” same-sex couples are trying to earn acceptance for being LGBT. Lifelong adoption, an "A+" rating with the Better Business Bureau provides an aggressive nationwide advertising, marketing, and national outreach campaign, “estimated two million LGBT people are interested in adopting” (“LGBT Adoption”). In the state of California there is roughly “16,000 adopted children” living with same-sex parents/couples. (“LGBT Adoption”).
Adoption is the complete and permanent transfer of parental rights and obligations, usually from one set of legal parents to adoptive parents(Ademec 27). Not until the late 19th century did the U.S. legislative body grant legal status to adoptive parents. This is when children and parents started to gain rights and support from the government. Through the years new laws have been passed and amended to keep the system fair to all adoptive parents. In 1994, Congress passed the Multiethnic Placement Act, making it illegal to delay the placement a child to find a racially matching family. In 1996 the Multiethnic Placement Act was amended to say, “One can not use race as a routine consideration in child placement”(Lewin sec.A). Before 1994, it was difficult to place a black child with white adopters. Last year 5,000 children were adopted from Europe, and 6,000 from Asia, while 183 came from Africa.(Lewin sec. A). The number of out-of-country adoptions are so high because of the requirements and regulations one must follow in the U.S. The requirements include being 21, and include being committed and loving. The home income must be adequate enough to support the family. Passing all of the medical exams and filling out the personal information is mandatory. But the main reason people adopt from overseas is because it is much quicker. A person can adopt a child from another country in a matter of months. In the U.S. the wait can exceed 5 years, which is why some people choose international adoption.
International adoption stunts the growth of domestic adoption in the United States. While many kids are available for adoption in the U.S, more kids are being adopted internationally. The reason for this may be because “many people choose to adopt internationally because there is a less chance that the biological parents will try to find their children later in life; whereas if adopted in America, there is a greater chance that the biological parents will search for the child” (Databasewise.n.d.pp 1-2). Not only do the adoptive parents want to be sure that the biological parents do not find their biological child, but they also want to avoid confrontations that can eventually have volatile results. Since there is a great need for domestic adoption in the United States, many American citizens believe that people should be banned from adopting children overseas (carp.1998.pp 135). For example, recent studies have shown that the USA is faced with a very serious problem. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, between “1999-2006,an average of 129,884 children are in public foster care every year waiting to be adopted” (adoption alternativ...
One specialist talked about why someone would choose to adopt by saying “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).