Adoption

This chapter highlights the idea of adoption and I enjoyed reading the section on adoption because I was adopted Internationally when I was 3 months old.  I read the part focusing on open adoption and the benefits/ criticisms that come along with this idea.  Being adopted Internationally really puts a limit on the option of having an open adoption and I am happy that I was not put through an open adoption.  I plan on returning to my birth country once I graduate from college, but more for the purpose of visiting my birth country and to experience the culture.  It is my choice whether or not I wish to take action to try and locate my birth mother and get in contact with her.  I still have not decided whether or not I want to do this, which goes to show how serious the idea of allowing contact between birth parents and adopted children is.  For me, the main reason for contacting my birth mother would be to find out any medical history and ask her questions about who she is, who my birth father is and to find out more about my birth family.

People feel that by providing their child an open adoption, they are allowing that child the opportunity to get answers to questions and to maintain some sort of close relationship with his/her birth parent(s).  I personally feel that this is not a good idea, especially considering the the effects it can have on a young child.  Yes, an adopted child will always have questions running through their mind about who their birth parents were, what they looked like, do they have any siblings, but I think that it is something that should not be addressed for a young child.  I feel that if there is going to be an open adoption, that it remains a closed adoption until the child has matured to appropriate age in which he/she can handle the sensitivity of this issue.  The child should have the choice of whether he/she wants contact with his/her birth parent(s) because that child's life is the life that is being most affected by the adoption.