Open
Adoption 'Options'
and Modern-Day Adoption Coercion
As
more parents and grandparents work together to keep and nurture their
own children, adoption agencies and adoption attorneys try to find
ways to separate them because there are huge
profits to be made from every healthy infant that is surrendered.
They are now promoting "open" adoption.
Why? Mainly because young adults when surveyed say that they'd be
more likely to surrender a baby if the adoption was open. Thus, more
babies for the market. Agencies and lawyers
can promote "open adoption" as a wonderful new option. What
they don' t explain is that the coercion is still there, the "choice"
for a new mother even more limited, her rights still taken away from
her by new and more exploitive means, and
the unending grief and loss she will endure is just as horrific
as if the adoption had been closed.
"Biological
parents in many locations are reporting that their supposedly open
adoption have become closed once the decree has been signed. Adoptive
parents report that attorneys have told them to promise biological
parents anything because once the adoption is legalized they can
do whatever they want. Some agencies are finding their adoptive
parents making verbal or written agreements for future contact and
then not keeping their promises. … The written adoption agreements
may be solid but they are not legally binding, as determined by
Oregon courts, because they have no statutory support. Yet making
them legally enforceable will not necessarily solve the problem.
As John Chally, Oregon attorney, pointed out in an interview, promissory
notes are legally binding yet frequently broken” -- p. 266
of “Levels of Cooperation and Satisfaction in 56 Open Adoptions”
by J. Etters, Child Welfare, vol 72, (1993).
Open Adoption Information:
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