Open Adoption: The Best Interest of the Child

1490 Words3 Pages

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.

First, social-work and mental-health experts have reached a consensus during the last decade that greater openness offers an array of benefits for adoptees—from ongoing information about family medical issues to fulfillment of their innate desire to know about their genetic histories—even if the expanded relationships prove difficult or uncomfortable for some of the participants (Verbrugge). An open adoption is when the natural mother and the adoptive family know the identity of each other and could obtain background or medical history from the biological parent. In an open adoption the parental rights of biological parents are terminated, as it is in a closed adoption, but an open adoptio...

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Beckett, Celia, Jenny Castle, Christine Sonuga-Barke, Colvert Edmund, and Stevens Jana. "The experience of adoption: a study of intercountry and domestic adoption from the child's point of view. Adoption and Fostering.

Espejo, Roman Opposing Viewpoints: Adoption. Ed. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002.

Goldstein, Jennifer. "I didn’t look for my birth parents": being adopted can raise a lot of question." Cosmo Girl Nov. 2005: 100. Print.

Purvis, Karyn, David Cross, and Jacquelyn Pennings. "Truth-based relational intervention: interactive principles for adopted children with social-emotional needs." Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and development 2009: 3-20. Print.

Verrbrugge, Allen. Contemporary Issues Companion: Adoption. Detroit: 2006, 2006. Print.

Weston, Carol. "Adopted." Girls' life Apr.-May 2010: 17. Student Edition. Web. 19 Apr. 2011.

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