When you speak of ADOPTION REFORM what exactly are you referring to?

I’m interested in the elimination of secrecy in child placement. Actually, I’m interested in the reduction of secrecy in many areas of government. Any government activity that is allowed to thrive without oversight, including but not limited to adoption, is an opportunity for oppression and abuse of power.

Making adoptions outside of a child’s family the last resort.

Having every adoption a legally enforceable open adoption (of course, in the case of extreme neglect or abuse, this may not be an option)

Having open records for every adoptee, their entire life

Making ALL foreign adoptions illegal. No exceptions.

Mandatory classes for all foster/adoptive parents with the classes based on the following books:
The Primal Wound by Nancy Verrier
Lost and Found: the Adoption Experience AND
Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness both by Betty Jean Lifton
The Adopted break Silence by Jean Paton
The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
Adoption: Uncharted Waters,by David Kirschner
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self by David Brodzinsky

***eta****
All adoptions are run through a NON-profit agency, only money paid is for court costs, making SURE father’s rights are respected, including a DNA test to confirm paternity before signing papers, making sure ALL first Moms have adequate counseling OUTSIDE of an agency, and NO contact with pap before, to insure no subtle coercion.
Thanks, Devon & Heather for putting that down!

I would like to see that women who are considering adoption are subjected to mandatory counseling that will help them realize the pros and cons of both sides. I think that they should discuss all the available help, and focus on keeping families together, rather than allowing the agencies to coerce mothers with their own spin on the situation.

I would like to see open records. I would like to see that finding out who your parents are is something that NO ONE has to spend one red cent on. I would like to see that original birth certificates are available for adoptees at their request.

ETA: And as others have stated, I would like to see more rights for the fathers. I would also like to see that no profit is ever made from the adoption of a child. It should be illegal, and punishable for any agency to do so.

From reading many of these answers, we as AP’s are correct in assuming that adoption reform and anti-adoption are the same thing, at least when it comes to international adoption. To say you are pro-reform and in the same breath say “no international adoption under any circumstance, no exceptions” means you are anti-adoption. And to say you would halt it until every child in foster care has a family is just ludicrous. I really wish I could make even the tiniest amount of sense out of your logic. To me, adoption reform means open records in all adoptions, domestic and IA. A cap on what agencies can charge to facilitate adoptions, so attorneys are not pocketing tens of thousands of dollars which encourages birth mother coercion, less opportunity for birth parents of children in foster care to spend years ruining their children’s lives through failed reunification plans (there needs to be a limit and they should not be given an infinite amount of time to straighten themselves out), continued work through organizations in foreign countries to aid domestic adoption and/or longterm foster care for children w/o families, but not doing away with IA in the meantime.

To many issues to address in one post so I’ll just say whats on my mind today…….

I was listening to NPR and one subject was on IVF and the number of rounds women should go through before giving up.

As expected….a lady going through treatment said “well if this doesn’t work I’m not opposed to adopting…I always wanted 2 BABIES…..I could just adopt 2 at the same time”. I think that its the responsibility of agencies to educate and get the word out about how callous it is to think that you can adopt babies like your picking apples off a tree. That mentality leads to coercing and manipulating girls into relinquishing to say the least. People need to be educated on the big picture and not their WANTS.

America needs more reforms than I could poke a stick at.( Its also the attitude towards adoption that stands out to me. And the loops holes and thoughlessness towards the emotional side of all involved floors me. Along with so many other things the mind boggles… )

On my home soil… The way birth certificates are issued needs to be addressed. All of my friends who have adopted children in recent years all agree that its wrong the way they put our names on it without any Reference to the biological parents. (Gosh just a first name if they need to keep a certain amount of privacy for her. Anything other than giving the idea we gave birth to our kids.) None of us want them issued that way.

Inter-country need to be addressed but mainly to pull states inline with one another in their assessments etc. There hasn’t been any real reform since the 1960’s so it needs updating. I know that inquiries are happening at the moment to do just that. I got cranky when a celebrity adoption advocate suggested Australia become more lenient towards our stand with countries that haven’t signed the Hague convention. (She adopted her kids in the US for starters because our system was to hard apparently. You know a celebrity doesn’t get special treatment in Australia when it comes to adoption. ) I won’t support that move at all. We need to stay strong with our morals and outlook towards family preservation.

Sly I don’t know how much you know about Australian local adoption, in one of the questions there was a website, which gives good details.

http://www.originscanada.org/comparison.html
(This information will give you a good idea that if I was an American this is what I’d be aiming for to begin with.)

That will explain it in more detail if you’re interested, that’s the system and how my kids ended up coming into my life. (These Reforms in the past 10 years and I don’t want us to go backwards. Which is how I look at the apparently ‘progressive’ faster American adoption system. And I do get angry at Aussies that go over there and take advantage of it because they can’t be bothered with ours.(all they need is residency to adopt in the US) It was good enough for us why not other Aussies. If America doesn’t change their way of doing things it undermines other countries because short sightened people put pressure on our social services to go backwards, do it more the like the U.S….

Just because a person is an adoptive parent doesn’t mean they are pro unethical adoption. I’m pro protection of children and ALL involved in the adoption circle.

And if attending a protest to say no to unethical adoptions and open up records for adoptee’s and improve the way women who relinquish children are treated. You be I’d be there…
Good luck with improving practices in your state.

Adoption is about the child in a dysfunctional family needing to be ‘correctly’ cared for in a temporary manner by someone not in dysfuntion. Be it family or experienced strangers now still the root problem was the natural family needed better coping skills with their situation. Just to remove the child from the home doesn’t fix the danger to the child so it can go home someday! Going Home is the child’s best goal. Moving a child around in the foster care system too often means no set discipline to strengthen their self esteem and overcome bad behavioral habits. Adoption too often it’s as if the government gave up on the family but punishes the child for its own harried decision.