Adoption is placing a minor with one or more guardians that are not the birth parents. In the US, adoptions are categorized into foreign and domestic, with domestic adoptions being coordinated by an adoption agency, independently, or a state agency. Adoption has changed previous perceptions in regards to families: trans-racial, gay, open, and international adoptions have transformed families to include more than simply individuals with biological relations. Additionally, adoptions have allowed gay couples to have children, and thus changed past perceptions that a family had to have a man and a woman for them to have offspring. According to Jordan, foreign adoptions in the US declined by 12% in 2015, which was an all-time low as compared to other years in the last three decades (para 1). The author highlights that this decrease is attributable to policy changes implemented to curb child trafficking and to increase adoption from third-world countries. Nonetheless, these measures should be reviewed to ensure that they prevent illegal activity, without having a significant negative implication on adoption rates in the country.
This research proposal will focus on establishing current domestic and foreign adoption rates in the US. Based on available statistics, the researcher will operate with a general hypothesis that there has been a decline in adoption in the country. Consequently, the research will make an attempt to establish causative elements for this trend, and propose mitigation strategies. The data reviewed in the study will be collected from recognized government sources, whereas the literature reviewed will be from credible research journals. The researcher hopes to establish solutions for the decline in adoption through recursive abstraction of a synthesis of the data and literature collected.
The researcher wishes to write on this topic to create awareness on adoption in the US. The researcher recognizes the significance of adoption, especially in birth parents finding suitable guardians for their children. Ideally, the adopted child can grow with the knowledge that his/her birth parents did not abandon him/her, but instead chose a better life for their child. One issue of concern for the researcher is that a decline in adoption rates may signify an increase in number of children being abandoned by their parents due to stringent adoption rules. Therefore, making adoptions in the US less available in an attempt to curb illegal activity could be counter-productive.
The article by Miriam Jordan in the Wall street Journal is one of the sources that will be used in this study. In the article, Jordan focuses on basing her arguments on statistics from various agencies; consequently, this makes this source reliable and one that can be cross-referenced with others. Additionally, the article was published in 2016 and thus most of the statistics it reviews are current. Similarly, Kathryn Joyce’s article ‘Save the Children’ will also be used in building arguments in this research paper. Joyce highlights some of the events that encouraged adoption in the US, and the researcher can use this information to propose strategies to curb the declining trend (Joyce 57). Michael Gove’s speech on ‘Why are adoption rates falling?’ will also be used as a source for this study. The researcher recognizes that this speech was delivered based on the UK context, but believes that some of the issues highlighted by the speaker are evident in the US. In addition, the fact that the speaker was the Education Secretary then makes this source authoritative (Gove 107).
Works Cited
Gove, Michael. "Why Are Adoption Rates Falling?" Vital Speeches of the Day 78.4 (2012): 107-112
Jordan, Miriam. “Foreign Adoptions by Americans hit Three-decade Low.” Wall Street Journal 29 Mar. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2016. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/foreign-adoptions-by-americans-hit-three-decade-low-1459296819)
Joyce, Kathryn. "Save The Children." Dissent (00123846) 63.1 (2016): 56-64
