Adoption

Adoption is the legal process of permanently placing a child into the care of parents (or a parent) who are not the child's biological parents. In the adoption process, the biological parents agree to give up all parental rights and responsibilities, which then transfer to the adoptive parents. For much of history, adoptions were performed to ensure the continuation of family lineage. By the mid-nineteenth century, adoption began to be viewed as a way to improve child welfare. Various reforms in the twentieth century placed rigorous standards upon those wishing to adopt and cloaked the process in strict confidentiality. A relaxation of secrecy requirements late in the century allowed for more open adoptions and increased opportunities for adoptees and birth parents to reunite.

Brief History

The first recorded laws concerning adoption are found in the Code of Hammurabi, a set of legal rules established in Babylon about 1800 B.C.E. These rules allowed birth parents to relinquish rights to their children and transfer them to an adoptive family. The children, who were usually adults at the time of the adoption, could be returned to their original parents if their adoptive parents had their own offspring. Among the Greeks and Romans, it became common practice for families without a legal heir to adopt a male adult as a way to ensure succession or to reinforce political alliances between families. At the age of twenty-five, Macedonian King Alexander the Great was adopted by a provincial governess, and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was adopted at seventeen and groomed as the successor to Emperor Antoninus.

In the sixth century CE, Roman Emperor Justinian created guidelines for adoption that influenced the process for centuries. In his law code The Institutes, Justinian set restrictions on who could adopt and declared that children who had not reached puberty could be adopted only if it was in their best interest. His law also established that adoptions could be finalized only in a court of law. Ancient societies typically did not support adoptions of infants. While some abandoned children may have been raised by families, they were not eligible to be adopted. Most were sold into slavery, and those who were not were considered property of their biological father.

In the Middle Ages, philosophies on adoption changed as biological lineage was considered the only acceptable form of succession. Adoption was discouraged or even prohibited in some cases. Unwanted children were often left in the care of a church or monastery. Since these institutions were usually among the most well-off in medieval society, it became customary for parents to offer their children to a religious order. The child was raised to live as a monk in service to the church. In time, this practice became a form of apprenticeship in which a child was placed in the custody of a craftsman or merchant to learn a trade. Adoptions that did occur during this time were handled privately.

Adoption in the United States

The legal system of early America was based on English common law, which banned adoptions. This changed in the nineteenth century, when social activists began advocating for children to be adopted from orphanages. They wanted to provide a caring family for a child rather than a place to work. In the mid-nineteenth century, waves of European immigrants began flooding into the United States and mainly settled in the cities along the East Coast. Urban poverty rose, and the number of homeless and abandoned children rose with it. The crisis spurred religious leaders to start the "orphan train" movement, the practice of taking homeless children from the East Coast and trying to place them with families in America's rural Midwest and West. Tens of thousands of children were adopted in this manner from 1853 to 1929.

As the movement grew, states began passing laws regarding child placements, but these laws usually just set up groundwork for recording adoption transactions. In 1851, Massachusetts became the first state to enact what is considered modern adoption legislation. The Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act was one of the first to use the concept of the "best interests of the child" in deciding adoption placements. The law allowed biological parents to legally sever ties with their children and transfer parental rights to the adoptive parents. The statute also allowed a judge to determine whether the prospective parents were "fit and proper" enough to assume responsibility for the child. The act became the model for other laws in the United States, and by 1876, twenty-four states had passed similar legislation.

Despite these laws, abuse of the adoption system was commonplace. Many children were placed in households where they faced abuse or were considered a source of labor rather than a member of a family. In response, a growing reform movement began in the United States. Social workers pushed to keep birth families together and prevent third-party adoptions, such as those performed through doctors or lawyers. Efforts were made to match children to families with the same racial, religious, physical, and developmental characteristics—a procedure believed to provide the image of a perfect biological family. In 1917, Minnesota became the first state to pass a law requiring an investigation of the prospective parents before an adoption could proceed. The legislation also required the birth certificate and adoption records to be kept confidential and set up probationary periods after a child was placed in a new home. Confidentiality was considered a key to the process, as adopting a child in the early twentieth century carried with it significant societal challenges.

Children born to unwed mothers were referred to as illegitimate, a word that not only held a social stigma but also was associated with poor health, mental deficiency, and immorality. Social prejudices against non-bloodline adoptions made many Americans distrustful of adoptive family units, as they believed them to be unnatural. The concept of eugenics—the then-popular idea that humans could be improved through selective breeding—also caused people to shy away from adoption. It was believed in some circles that adopting a child of unknown bloodline could introduce "bad heredity" into a family. Social workers eventually petitioned states to remove the word illegitimate from birth certificates and create new birth records that included only the names of the adoptive parents.

The American public's attitude toward adoption began to change in the years after World War II. The "baby boom" era saw a considerable increase in children born to unwed mothers. This trend was combined with a prosperous postwar economy and an increased desire by childless couples to become parents. Changing cultural standards also removed the stigma of adopting a child. The nurturing ability of a family to care for a child became a higher priority than the strict reliance on biology.

While many adoptions were arranged within families—a child adopted by a grandparent or a stepparent, for example—most were between non-relatives or strangers. In 1937, about 16,000 adoptions were processed in the United States; by 1965 that number had increased to 142,000 and reached a peak of 175,000 in 1970. The increased requests for adoptions often led to long waits for prospective parents, who had to contend with rigid screening requirements. In response, many parents turned to international adoptions from war-torn, poverty-stricken, or overcrowded regions. These adoptions often required less regulation and shorter waiting times. The idea of matching a child with a biologically similar family was also discarded as interracial and special needs adoptions become more prevalent.

In the 1970s, confidentiality laws began to relax, allowing for the potential future reunion of birth parent and child. Prior to that time, most adoptions had been closed adoptions, in which birth records were sealed and the identities of the biological family were kept secret from the adoptive family. As open adoptions became more common, information between biological and adoptive families was allowed to be shared and, in some cases, contact between the two parties was even allowed. Changing attitudes toward sex and marriage in the United States led to an increase in single-parent adoptions and adoptions by same-sex couples.

Adoption Today

As the stigma of out-of-wedlock births lessened by the twenty-first century, more single mothers decided to raise their children, thereby decreasing the number of adoptions between strangers. At the same time, a rise in divorce and remarriage led to more blended households, which has led to increased adoptions within families. According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway from the US Department of Health and Human Services, 135,813 children were adopted in the United States in 2008.

Four types of adoption are available in the United States today. Foster-care adoption is the process of adopting a child from the foster-care system. This system places children in the custody of a state institution, group home, or certified caregiver until a permanent adoptive home can be found. Children involved in foster care are usually removed from their biological parents or original home for protective purposes. Federal law requires that the process of placing foster children in a permanent home must begin within a year, though exceptions can be made if the child is placed with a relative. In many cases, several children from the same family may be placed in foster care at the same time. In these instances, federal law requires state adoption agencies to make every effort to keep siblings together during placement, though this is not always possible.

Infant adoption is the process of adopting a newborn or young child from birth parents who place the child for adoption. These adoptions are usually arranged through an adoption agency or an attorney. Before the adoption can be finalized, the biological parents must first consent to the adoption and relinquish all parental rights to the child. The court or state agency must also determine whether the potential adoptive parent or parents can provide a suitable home for the child. Even after the birth parents agree to the adoption, the law allows a window of time for them to withdraw consent. The child must also live with the adoptive parents for a probationary period. The duration of this period varies by state, but is usually at least six months. If no objections or problems arise within this period, a judge orders the termination of the birth parents' rights, and the adoption is finalized.

International adoption concerns the adoption of children from countries outside the United States. In 1993, the Hague Convention established guidelines for international adoptions, affording greater protections for adoptions between the ratifying nations. By 2024, more than one hundred countries had signed or accepted the agreement. Rules for international adoption can vary by country, but in countries that recognize the Hague Convention, the process is similar to adoptions within the United States. To be approved for an international adoption, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service requires prospective parents to undergo a background check and home study.

Interfamily adoptions are the most common form of modern adoption. In many cases, if a parent wishes to adopt the child of a new spouse, the process may be considerably streamlined. Courts may do away with home visits and adoption hearings, but the consent of the other birth parent is required for the adoption to proceed. If the other parent refuses to give consent, his or her rights can be terminated through court action.

The laws governing adoptions in the United States vary from state to state. In most cases, any adult or married couple is eligible to adopt. In seven states and Puerto Rico, prospective adoptive parents must be at least eighteen years old. In Colorado, Delaware, and Oklahoma, the parents must be at least twenty-one, and in Georgia and Idaho, they must be at least twenty-five. Some states allow minors to adopt under specific circumstances. Other states set age differences between adoptive parents and children. For example, six states require parents be at least ten years older than the prospective adoptee; in Idaho, the difference is fifteen years.

In twenty-nine states, a person of any age is eligible for adoption, while other states specify that the child must be younger than eighteen. Five states mandate that all adoptions be conducted through a government department or a licensed agency. Four other states put the same restrictions on all non-family adoptions. Most states will allow private adoptions, though in some cases court or state approval is required. Limits on adoption by same-sex couples exist in some states. Some states use language that specifically requires a "husband and wife" to jointly petition to adopt a child—though it is not strictly determined that such language bars legally married same-sex couples from adoption—while other states use more gender-neutral language. In 2016, Mississippi became the last state to overturn its ban on adoption by same-sex couples.

Bibliography

"Adoption History in Brief." Adoption History Project, 24 Feb. 2012, pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/adoptionhistbrief.htm. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

"Adoption Laws." National Adoption Center, www.adopt.org/adoption-laws. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Boswell, John. The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance. University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Carp, E. Wayne, ed. Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives. University of Michigan Press, 2002.

"The Four Types of Adoption." Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, davethomasfoundation.org/adoption-guide/the-four-types-of-adoption/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Herman, Ellen. Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

"How Many Children Were Adopted in 2007 and 2008?" Child Welfare Information Gateway, September 2011, www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/adopted0708.pdf#page=26&view=Appendix A: Total Adoptions for Selected Years, 2000–2008. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

"Illegitimacy." Adoption History Project, 24 Feb. 2012, pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/illegitimacy.htm. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

"Who May Adopt, Be Adopted, or Place a Child for Adoption?" Child Welfare Information Gateway, Children's Bureau, 2020, cwig-prod-prod-drupal-s3fs-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/public/documents/parties.pdf. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.