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Adoptee rights are the legal and social rights of adopted people relating to their adoption and identity. These rights frequently center on access to information which is kept sealed within closed adoptions, but also include issues relating to intercultural or international adoption, interracial adoption, and coercion of birthparents. Adoption reform efforts are often led by adoptee rights activists.

History

The adoptee rights movement in the United States and other Western countries gained popularity following the increased adoption rates of the Baby Scoop Era, beginning with the end of World War II and ending in the early 1970s.

United States

In the United States, original birth certificates were frequently available to adult adoptees until the mid-twentieth century, when many states passed laws closing birth records. Jean M. Paton, an early adoptee rights activist, established Orphan Voyage in 1953. Orphan Voyage was a support and search network for adoptees looking for their birth families.

As children adopted in the Baby Scoop Era began to reach adulthood in the 1970s, interest in adoptee rights increased significantly. The Adoptees' Liberty Movement Association (ALMA) was founded by Florence Anna Fisher in 1971; within a few years, it had 50,000 members and 50 chapters. ALMA's aims included pressuring states to open their adoption records. Search and support groups sprang up as adoptees sought to find information about their birth families; the American Adoption Congress was started in 1978 as an umbrella organization for many of these groups.

Beginning in the 1980s open adoption became more prevalent, providing access to information for birthparents and adoptees as well as the option to be in contact with each other; most adoptions are now open to some extent. Adoptee rights organizations such as Bastard Nation continue to advocate for the opening of sealed adoption records, in addition to other adoptee concerns.

Issues

Closed adoption

Many adoptee rights concerns center on the negative impacts of closed adoption on adoptees. These include not having information about their own ethnic or religious background, lack of access to medical history, and psychological and emotional challenges relating to attachment. In closed adoptions, adoptees are not permitted access to their own original birth certificate, and governments produce new birth certificates which list the adoptive parents' names as the birth parents. Adoptees' Liberty Movement Association founder Florence Fisher called sealed records "an affront to human dignity."

Citizenship of intercountry adoptees

Children who are adopted across international boundaries are not necessarily automatically considered citizens of the country of their adoptive parents. Certain requirements may be necessary in order for adoptees to apply for and receive citizenship status. In countries such as Japan, Brazil, and Mexico, foreign adopted children must reside in those countries for a specific period to apply for citizenship. Countries such as Brazil, Israel, and Sweden mandate a social and psychological assessment report of the adoptive parents. In the United States, some adoptees were left without clear citizenship when their adoption agencies did not secure appropriate paperwork. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 provided for citizenship of some, but not all, of those adoptees in the United States; an Adoptee Citizenship Act has been introduced to Congress each year since 2015 to ensure adoptees are not subject to deportation, but has not yet been passed.

Adoptee rights organizations work with legislators to ensure that adopted people have the same access to citizenship that non-adoptees are guaranteed.

Interracial adoption

Transracial adoption—in Western countries, usually involving non-white children and white adults—is a contentious issue. Transracial adoptees often face specific challenges, including a lack of diversity in their environment, racism from adoptive family members, and a lack of connection with their birth culture. In addition, they can struggle with developing a cohesive racial and cultural identity. Adoptee rights organizations provide support for transracially adopted people.

Anonymous infant abandonment

Some adoptee rights organizations are also concerned with the anonymous relinquishment of infants and oppose the implementation of baby boxes, which they believe trivializes the legal abandonment of newborns. The Adoptee Rights Law Center has been a vocal opponent of baby boxes as being a temporary, inadequate solution to problems facing new parents. Anonymous infant relinquishment also echoes the problems of closed adoption, with adoptees left without information about their background or their medical history.

Adoption abolition

In the early 2000s, anti-adoption viewpoints began to become more prominent, prompted by growing recognition of problems within the adoption industry including coercion, corruption, and lack of transparency. Some reproductive rights activists saw adoption reforms as a necessary component of people having the right to make free decisions concerning reproduction. While support for adoption is widespread in the United States and other Western countries, some adoptee activists are supportive of policies that make adoption less frequent, such as providing funding assistance to birthparents instead of adoptive parents. Those who are working towards adoption abolition believe that "if poverty, racism, and health care inequities were properly redressed, adoption would be a last resort."

References

1. "Adoption". Britannica. 1 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
2. ^ "Adoption History: Confidentiality and Sealed Records". The Adoption History Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
3. "Adoption History: Jean M. Paton, The Adopted Break Silence, 1954". The Adoption History Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
4. Risen, Clay (10 October 2023). "Florence Fisher, Advocate for Opening Adoption Records, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
5. Kahan, Michelle (1 September 2006). ""Put Up" on Platforms: A History of Twentieth Century Adoption Policy in the United States". The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. 33 (3): 65. doi:10.15453/0191-5096.3181. ISSN 0191-5096. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
6. Grotevant, Harold D.; Miller Wrobel, Gretchen; Von Korff, Lynn; Skinner, Brooke; Newell, Jane; Friese, Sarah; McRoy, Ruth G. (1 July 2008). "Many Faces of Openness in Adoption: Perspectives of Adopted Adolescents and Their Parents". Adoption quarterly. 10 (3 & 4): 79–101. doi:10.1080/10926750802163204. PMC 2928480. PMID 20802843. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
7. Lipe, Alex. "The Adoption Industry and the Adoptee Rights Movement – Commodities, Conflict, and Cooperation". Commodities, Conflict, and Cooperation. Evergreen State College. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
8. ^ Global Legal Research Directorate staff (February 2021). "Citizenship Through International Adoption". Law Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
9. Galofaro, Claire; Tong-Hyung, Kim (25 October 2024). "Thousands of children adopted by Americans are without citizenship. Congress is unwilling to act". AP News. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
10. Luce, Gregory D. (26 May 2021). "FAQ: Adoptee Citizenship Act". Adoptee Rights Law Center. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
11. "Adoption History: Transracial Adoptions". The Adoption History Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
12. ^ "4 Unique Challenges Faced By Transracial Adoptees". American Adoptions. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
13. ""Legalized" Baby Abandonment Laws: Baby Drop Boxes". Bastard Nation. 18 February 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
14. ^ Vollers, Anna Claire (26 February 2024). "More places install drop-off boxes for surrendered babies. Critics say they're a gimmick". Stateline. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
15. Matchar, Emily (1 September 2013). "Meet the New Anti-Adoption Movement". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
16. ^ Sisson, Gretchen; Harrison, Jessica M. (7 December 2021). "What We Get Wrong About Adoption". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
17. Merritt, Michele (17 October 2022). "We Should Be Fighting for a World Without Adoption". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 12 November 2024.

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