Although the adoption legislators (in Australia) have acknowledged
the disastrous emotional carnage left in the wake of the closed adoption
system, once again, no form of research has even been considered let
alone conducted into the new open form of adoption.
Any rational thinking person who thought for one minute how they would
feel, having to spend the rest of their lives watching and hearing their
own child, their own flesh and blood, calling total strangers with no
biological tie 'mommy' because they had gone through a temporary life
crisis when they had been young, poor, and unsupported, when someone
had recommended adoption as an option out of their situation, would
realise the mental anguish and distress such a situation would eventually
create in both the mother and the child.
The natural mothers in these open adoption situations are at the mercy
of the goodwill of the adopting parents and end up becoming `the dancing
bear', suppressing their own grief and rage, dancing to the tune of
the piper, accepting crumbs, an hour here, a letter there, a forced
smile, jumping through hoops, tolerating anything to avoid being put
back in their cage, with no further contact to their child.
For others, the despair in having to see their child being raised
by strangers after their temporary crisis is over, forces them to avoid
any contact at all. And then they are accused of not being interested.
Just as the peak suicide rate in Australian women coincided with the
peak adoption period, suicide and attempted suicide is not uncommon
amongst mothers who are part of the new open adoption practice.
And still the legislators fail to acknowledge that the new concept
of open adoption is also fraught with extreme mental health problems
to its consumers.
