An Adoption
Glossary
This Adoption Glossary is a series of excerpts
from The Family of Adoption by Joyce Maguire-Pavao, Beacon
Press, Boston, ©1998, and is reproduced with her permission for
the purpose of helping birth parents and adoptive parents distinguish
between the many different types of adoption available to them
as they begin the process of making an adoption plan and on creating
a family of adoption.
"The definition of adoption, according to Webster's, is "A ready
taking up of something." To adopt is: (1) To take into one's family
through legal means and raise as one's own child. (2) (a) To take
and follow (a course of action, for example) by choice or assent.
(b) To take up and make one's own. (3) To take on or assume.
In my work, I have found adoption to mean different things to
different people:
To some, adoption is the act of adoption -- the legal moment
in the courthouse.
To some it is the life of adoption that the adopted child
lives.
To some it is the life of adoption that the adoptive parents
live.
To some it is the life of adoption that the birth parents
live.
To some it is the adoptive family, inclusive of the child.
To some it is the extended family of adoption, including
the birth parents (whether they are known or unknown, present
or not).
To a child, adoption is about being with the family they
are in.
Sometimes, … when asked if they think about adoption, children
say "no," and they are being honest. Children do, however, think
about their birth family and wonder who they themselves are and
where they came from. They do not see that as thinking about "adoption"
while they are young and at a developmental stage of concrete
thinking."
"In an attempt to define various kinds of adoption, I give you
the following list. No matter how sensitive one is to what one
knows, things are often left out. I am prepared to have people
write or call after reading this and say "you forgot. . .": And
they will be quite right."
Public adoption
"In two U.S. states (Massachusetts and Connecticut), public adoptions
are regulated by DSS or Child and Family Services, which require
training in child welfare. In every state, public adoption services
are available, either through a public child welfare agency, such
as the Department of Social Services, Bureau of Children, or Child
Welfare Agency, or through a private child welfare agency, such
as Jewish Family and Children's Services, Catholic Charities,
Lutheran Children's Services, or Casey Family Services."
Private adoption
"In all but the two states that require the involvement of child
welfare agencies in adoptions, lawyers and business people - some
very good and ethical, and some simply in business - can arrange
adoptions privately. Attorneys are often the ones who facilitate
adoption. The adoption is then legalized in court.
In the forty-eight states that support private adoption, social
workers, adoptive parents, or business people can decide to do
adoptions and open private adoption businesses."
Independent adoption
"In all of our states, more and more frequently, birth parents
want to have some say in who adopts their child. The birth parents
are involved in choosing and then meeting with the preadoptive
couple or person who will eventually parent the child. Sometimes,
couples who want to adopt put ads in papers and send letters to
their friends, clergy, and physicians asking for the referral
of a mother who has decided to place her baby for adoption.
Increasingly, then, the people involved in adoption are making
their own arrangements and calling in the professionals only for
the legal paperwork and finalization of their plans. When the
parties involved have the best adoption counseling to make a good
plan, not only for now, but for a lifetime, this route to adoption
can be empowering for all parties. Without the proper guidance,
however, independent adoptions can involve manipulation on the
part of birth parents, adoptive parents, or attorneys or others
involved. Independent adoptions that do not include education
and counseling, and are not done with sensitivity and honesty,
too often result in ill feelings and adoption disruption."
Closed Adoption
"A closed adoption is one in which the birth parents and adoptive
parents know little or nothing about one another and have no identifying
information. A large number of public and private adoptions are
closed (educated guess: 45%). Most international adoptions are
closed in the receiving country, but not in the sending country.
In all adoptions…sealed records are said to protect. When a contract
- any contract - is made, all parties are supposed to agree and
sign. In the case of adoption, though, the infant or child is
not old enough to agree to this closed arrangement.
In the United States, records are still closed in [many]
states. This is not true in the
United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and in many other countries,
where open records are a fact and where, when the child is not
endangered, some form of open adoption is the usual practice."
Semi-open Adoption
" In a semi-open adoption, the birth and preadoptive parents
meet once, without exchanging last names or addresses, and usually
agree to send letters and pictures through an intermediary for
a period of time. There is no agreement to any face-to-face contact
or long-range connection other than an acknowledgment that the
child will probably search for his birth parents when he becomes
an older adolescent or adult.
Today, a high proportion of adoptions are semi-open. If the intermediary
arrangement is working properly, so that if there is a hiatus
in communication, the two parties can later reconnect through
the intermediary, then, for instance, the adoptive parents and
pediatrician can be kept informed of any medical information concerning
the child. A semi-open plan can also become more open if both
parties have developed a level of trust and are comfortable with
that arrangement. Semi open adoption often makes the growing child
or adolescent feel left out, since it's only the adults who all
seem to know one another."
Open Adoption
"Open adoption is not joint custody. Open adoption is an arrangement
agreed to by the adoptive parents and birth parents in which there
is an ongoing connection between them, to be determined by the
parties involved. The birth parents still sign terminations of
parental rights, and the adoptive parents become the full and
legal parents of the child.
Open adoption ranges from what some people call open, but is
actually semi-open, to a full relationship with ongoing connection
and visits. Openness often varies over time, depending on the
needs of the child and the parents' understanding of their roles
and responsibilities. The success of open adoption depends on
clear boundaries, the participants' respect for each other's roles
and responsibilities, and the ability of the adults involved to
put their egos aside in order to do what is best for the child."
Legal Adoption
"Legal adoption occurs when the birth parents' parental rights
have been terminated via a Termination of Parental Rights (TPR)
and the adoptive parents have taken on those parental rights through
legal adoption proceedings."
Emotional Adoption
"There are some adoptive situations in which a child is raised
by people who love and consider that child to be their own, and
it is clear that there is a parent-child relationship, though
it has not been legalized. This is often true in kinship arrangements
(a grandmother parenting a grandchild), guardianships, and long-term
foster care situations."
Infant Adoption: Same Race
"Most of the business of adoption, with private agencies, private
attorneys, and adoption professionals, is same-race adoption,
most commonly of a white infant by an infertile couple who want
a child as much like the child they might have had as possible.
Same-race infant adoption is often done to keep a child who cannot
stay in his birth family or extended birth family in his community
of origin. Native American, Latino, Asian, Caucasian, and African
American children are placed in families of the same ethnicity
and culture when possible to give them a sense of community and
connectedness."
Infant Adoption: Transracial
"When all reasonable efforts have been made to keep the child
with the birth family or within the same ethnic community, transracial
adoption is a positive solution. Children do need families that
are permanent and cannot be left in transitional homes for most,
or all, of their childhood.
In a transracial adoption, it is crucial, needless to say, that
the family adopting a child of another race is sensitive to racism
and has respect for their child's ethnicity and culture of origin.
The family must be willing to see itself as a transracial family,
not to see the child as of another race.
The family should be willing to consider living in a diverse
community so that the child can become familiar with and positive
about his or her own culture, ethnicity, and racial background
and can have positive adult role models of the same race."
Infant Adoption: International
"Infant adoptions from other countries are often transracial as
well, so the same issues apply. Most common today in the United
States are Chinese infant adoptions.
It is important for adoptive families to have respect for and
an understanding of their child's country of origin. It is also
important for agencies doing international adoptions to work with
the sending countries and bureaus to make sure that as much information
as possible is transmitted to the adoptive family so that they
will have it when the child is older and asking questions.
How we talk to internationally adopted children about the complex
societal issues involved in their adoptions is important."
Sibling Adoption
"Most child welfare professionals agree heartily that siblings
should be kept together and adopted into the same family; this
is what we mean by sibling adoption. All efforts are made to keep
siblings together in public adoption. This is not as true in private
adoption, in which siblings may be placed in separate households.
In these cases, an open arrangement and commitment should be made
between the two (or more) families to view themselves as extended
family, so that the children can have some sense of ongoing family.
This is important for their healing and growth. Giving a sense
of continuity to siblings adopted into different families who
are nevertheless willing to function as extended family is more
possible in the case of domestic sibling adoption than it is in
the more complicated international sibling adoption."
Kinship Adoption
"Kinship adoption means the adoption of a child by a grandparent,
aunt or uncle, or other member of the extended family or by someone
considered kin by the family, such as a dear old friend, called
aunt or uncle, or a godparent. Many kinship adoptions are emotional,
but not legal adoptions. This has been quite common for centuries.
Open kinship adoption refers to a kinship adoption of any of
the kinds described above in which the roles and relationships
are talked about and are clear. A closed kinship adoption is one
in which the child is not told the truth concerning her birthparent.
Very often sooner or later in life she discovers the truth from
a family member."
Half Adoption
"When a partner in a couple adopts the birth child of the other
partner, that child has been half adopted."
