Adoption is the process of voluntarily legally becoming a non-biological parent to someone and becoming legally responsible for them. The child moves in permanently with the parents. Consequently, the adoptive parents get full parental responsibilities and rights, and the adopted child gets all the familial emotional, legal and social benefits children normally get form their biological parents. There are many options available in the United States for adopting today. These are, adopting a child from the country’s system of foster care, adopting locally and infant at birth, adopting internationally a child from another country where there is need, or one can adopt their stepchild. A person who wishes to become an adoptive parent can use attorneys, public adoption agencies or private adoption agencies so as to be helped get a child. This essay will give a summary of the current domestic adoption policy, and also that of adoption as a whole while critiquing it and supporting the arguments in it.
Domestic adoption is the type of adoption where both the adoptive parents and the adopted child are from the same country and are citizens of the country. In this case, it is where an infant born in united states is put up for adoption by its biological parents who legally agree for it to be adopted by the adoptive family that they choose. It is also called private domestic adoption. The child either can be from a foster home, a private setting, or can be a stepchild of the adoptive parent. The whole process of adoption, that is, doing an initial placement of the child to the new home, doing background checks of both the birth and adoptive parents and getting consent and then finalization is controlled by state policy and law.
Currently, domestic adoption has several policies of adoption so as to ensure that the process is successful (Matthew, Flango, 2013). For example, information of the adopted and their biological families need to be collected. Each state has regulations on the required information on their genetic, mental and medical history, and social and family background, placement history, and experiences. The information that can be permitted to be collected and its timing is also regulated. For relative adoptions, exceptions are given. The expenses and fees expected to be incurred by an adoptive parent such as agency fees, costs of placement, birth mother expenses, and legal fees are regulated too and required to be reported in the court (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). According to the domestic policy, parental rights of unfit parents can be terminated even without their consent, or reinstated, all these by the court, which acts in the interest of the children involved.
Overall adoption is also surrounded by policies. The eligibility of a child or an adult getting adopted, or a person becoming an adoptive parent, or of one getting allowed to put their child up for adoption is also regulated by state policies (United Nations, 2009). The consent of these parties regarding adoption and the steps for its revocation is also summarized. The character and criminal backgrounds of potential adoptive parents and their households are checked in the criminal records of the states. Home studies of potential adoptive home are a requirement and guidelines are given for the people who must be in the home study, its elements, exceptions for adoption of relatives, and for adopting across states.
However, the current policy of adoption in America is not as efficient as required. Many children languish in the care of foster homes, without ever getting adopted into permanent homes. Statistics show that there are about four hundred thousand children in the system currently, 18% being there for three years or more, and 9% five years, giving them instability. This is brought about by the policies put up in the system such as incentives of funding of foster cares, inadequate accountability by the state, and complicated bureaucracy that make it hard for these children to get a permanent home to be adopted in.
Adoption policies often attack the freedom of providers of private adoption, even if they play a major role in making sure that children are placed for adoption in safe homes. Many adoption providers belief that all children must have a mother and father who are married, and therefore discriminated against same-sex parents because of the new laws on sexual orientation and marriage redefinition (Darrel, 2014; Janine, Barth, 2009). This pushes high quality agencies to close down making adoption harder and depriving children of homes.
In conclusion, the current adoption policies should be reformed so that the many children in need of adoption can get adopted into permanent homes where they can get loved and cared for, and for people who wish to adopt to adopt. The policies should encourage adoption, and not put up stringent measures that reduce adoption agencies. The interests of the children should come first. This will be made possible if the government and agencies come together to help each other. Faith-based and private organizations should be allowed to operate according to their values as long as they follow the basic requirements.
Works Cited
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). Regulation of Private Domestic Adoption Expenses. USA.
Montero, M. D, (2014). America’s Progress in Achieving the Legalization of Same-Gender Adoption: Analysis of Public Opinion, 1994 to 2012. USA. Oxford University Press.
Parry, J., & Barth, J, (2009). Political Culture, Public Opinion, and Policy (Non) Diffusion: The Case of Gay and Lesbian Related Issues in Arkansas. Arkansas. Southwestern Social Science Association.
Shuman, M., & Flango, V.E, (2013). Trends in U.S. Adoptions: 2000 to 2009. Journal of Public Child Welfare, Vol. 7:329–349, 2013. USA. Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
United Nations. (2009). Child Adoption: Trends and Policies. New York.
