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Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than the birth parents. Adoption usually results in the severing of the parental responsibilities and rights of the biological parents and the placing of those responsibilities and rights onto the adoptive parents. After the finalization of an adoption, there is no legal difference between biological and adopted children.
Different jurisdictions have varying laws on adoption and post-adoption. Some practise closed adoption, preventing further contact between the adopted person and the biological parents, while others have varying degrees of open adoption, which may allow such contact.
Reasons for adoption
Most children are placed for adoption as a result of the biological parents' decision that they are unable to adequately care for a child. Rarer are cases in which biological parents have lost their responsibilities and rights due to neglect or abuse. A small percentage of children who were adopted have been orphaned because of the death of their biological parents.
In some cases, parents' rights have been terminated when their outgroup culture has been deemed unfit by the controlling government. Aboriginal Peoples in Australia were affected by such policies, as were Native Americans in the United States and Canada.
People make decisions to adopt for various reasons, however the inability to produce a biological child is the most common reason. The most common obstacle to producing a biological child is infertility. Another obstacle is the lack of a partner of the opposite sex or a lack of desire to use a surrogate or sperm donor. Gay and single people often adopt for this reason. Some couples, young and old, adopt even though they are fertile, choosing to give birth to one child then adopt a second from the other sex.
Adoption agencies
Adoption agencies can range from government-funded agencies that place children at little cost, to lawyers who arrange private adoptions, to international commercial and non-profit agencies. Adoptive parents can pay from nothing to US$40,000 for an adoption, with private adoptions generally costing more. Infants are more commonly sought than toddlers or older children, and adoptive parents often seek the same race.
International adoption is becoming more popular with a perceived lower risk of birthfamily contact post-adoption and more young healthy children available than in major domestic adoptive countries. China is the leading country for American international adoptions.
Because of the relatively high profit in placing children, especially in international situations where the costs of living are much lower than the adoptive parents' country, corruption and adoption trafficking has risen. There are no firm numbers as adoptive families are reluctant to publicise unethical adoptions, but several countries have closed following high profile trafficking and corruption cases, such as Romania and Cambodia.
Reunification
Many adopted people and biological parents who were separated by adoption have a natural desire to reunite. In countries which practise closed adoption, this desire has led to efforts to open sealed records (for example, see Adoption reunion registry) and efforts to establish the right of adoptees to access their sealed records (for example, see Bastard Nation).
Adoptism
Adoptism is a prejudice against adoption defined by several beliefs:
- The belief that adoption is not a legitimate way to build a family
- The belief that birthing children is always preferable to adopting
- The belief that adoptees are defined throughout their lives by the fact of their adoption
- The belief that making an adoption plan is never a preferable option for birth mothers who are unable or choose not to raise their children
Positive adoption language
In most cultures, adoptive families face adoptism. Adoptism is made evident in English speaking cultures by the prominent use of negative or inaccurate language describing adoption. To combat adoptism, adoptive families encourage positive adoption language.
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Non-preferred:
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Preferred:
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Reason for preference:
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your own child
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birth child
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Saying a birth child is your own child or one of your own children implies that an adopted child is not.
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child is adopted
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child was adopted
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Some adoptees believe that their adoption is not their identity, but is an event that happened to them. ("Adopted" becomes a participle rather than an adjective.) Others contend that "is adopted" makes adoption sound like a disability to be overcome.
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give up for adoption
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place for adoption
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make an adoption plan |
"Give up" implies a lack of value. The preferred terms are more emotionally neutral.
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real mother/father/parent
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birth mother/father/parent or
biological mother/father/parent
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The use of the term "real" implies that the adoptive family is artificial, and is not as descriptive.
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birth mother/father/parent
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natural mother/father/parent
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A contrary view to the above, especially held by those in Ireland who cared for their children before being forced to relinquish them to adoption, is that the term 'birth' mother implies that they only served as a brood mare when in fact they often raised and cared for their children for up to two years.[1] (http://www.adoptionloss.ie/history.htm)
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your adopted child
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your child
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The use of the adjective 'adopted' signals that the relationship is qualitatively different from that of parents to birth children.
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See also
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