Adoption-Ed 101: The Problem

What exactly is adoption?  We can't truly learn about adoption until we know what it is, and what it aims to do.  We need to define adoption so that we all understand what it is, what I mean when I use that word, and what different types of adoption look like.

Adoption is when the parenting of a person is transferred from one person to another, and all of the rights and and responsibilities are transferred from one set of parents to another.  This is ultimately a legal transaction that is permanent.  Children who are adopted are never expected to be returned to their original parents.  Depending on the type of adoption, most adoptees are never expected to ever know their original parents in any capacity.

Adoption is seen as a way to solve an interesting problem.  On one hand, you have a parent or parents who feel they are not able to raise a child for whatever reason (assuming they had a choice, there are cases where they did not, especially in the Baby Scoop Era).  On the other hand, you have a parent or parents who are not able to have children of their own (in most cases).  It seems like the perfect solution to transfer the child from the parents who cannot raise him/her to the parents who want to raise the child.  This is done legally and permanently so that there is no question as to who is supposed to be the adoptee's family.

Once an adoption is finalized, the adoptee's original birth certificate is sealed and they are issued a new one with their adoptive parents' names on it.  More on this tomorrow.  Legally, they are treated like property as the responsibility is passed from one set of parents to the other.

The more important part of this post is that adoption is permanent.  There is no going back once a child is adopted.  Once a child is adopted, their first family is erased.  If a first family wants to get a child back, they must re-adopt that child.  Adoption is a permanent solution to the problem which must be carefully considered from all different angles before attempted.