Adoption in United States

Adoption

Adoption is a form of fictive kinship in which an individual or a couple assumes the parental status of a child who is frequently not biologically related. In legal adoption, the biological parents relinquish all legal rights to the child; these rights are transferred to the adoptive parents. Because of the permanent and legally binding nature of adoption, the child is socially recognized as “belonging” to the newly constituted family unit and theoretically acquires the same status as the other family members, regardless of whether ties are established on the basis of biological reproduction or not (Madhavan, 185-210).

Formal adoption differs significantly from other forms of childcare in which the child is raised outside of the biological parent-child dyad, such as guardianship and crisis and voluntary fostering, as such less-formal care systems allow children to inherit from the biological parents, and the biological parents retrain the right to veto decisions taken by the foster parents. In fostering, a child may at any time be removed from the foster care parents, whereas removal from adoptive parents is improbable because of the legalities surrounding adoptive kin.

Modern Adoption

In the contemporary era, placing a child for adoption occurs for a number of reasons, such as the death of the biological parents, the lack of financial wherewithal for the biological parents to raise a child, and parental pressure exerted on young biological parents to relinquish rights to the child.

Adoptions in the present day occur between both related and unrelated kin. The primary reasons for biological kin adoption include parental death; the inability to care for a child because of age, medical conditions, and alcohol and drug abuse; and a child being formally adopted by a parent's new spouse, which is commonly referred to as stepparent adoption. The most common reasons for choosing to adopt a child include the inability to conceive, maternal yearning, and the desire to provide a safe home to a child in need (Rayside, 56-65).

Although adoption has historically been limited to taking place within the borders of a country, a global trend has emerged that entails transnational adoption. Transnational adoption may occur through either a private or public agency, and the laws regulating international adoption vary significantly from one country to another. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), war, and poverty have resulted in an increase in cross-border adoption, in which adoptive parents opt to adopt primarily to provide a safe haven to a child in need. International adoption is also undertaken to secure access to a child who is of a similar ethnic origin, to speed up the adoption process by avoiding internal waiting lists, or to fulfill maternal desire by providing ready access to a child. Despite the fact that adoption is closely monitored and regulated in much of the Western world, adoption for financial gain is a growing trend, especially in the international adoption arena.

Adoption and the Psychosocial Experience Couple

The decision to adopt involves ongoing negotiation between the couple, sometimes with one member feeling more ...