Adoption
"Our children are not ours because they share our genesÂ… they are ours because we have had the audacity to envision them" (http://www.karensadoptionlinks.com/inspirat.html). Adoption affects people in a profound way, showing love and affection to the ones who need it the most. A staggering amount of couples want to show this affection; "in 1992, the last year for which total adoption statistics were available, 127,441 children of all races and nationalities were adopted in the United States" (Pertman, 2000).Often a husband and wife jointly adopt a child or children and thus become the legal parents of this child who is not theirs naturally. However after an adoption, for legal purposes, adoptive parents are viewed as if they were the natural parents of the adoptive child. Among other things, this means they assume all legal responsibilities that a natural parent normally has for their child, including duties of physical care and financial support and may inherit from each other just as natural parents and their children do. On the other hand, the process of adoption severs all legal ties between an adopted child's natural parents and the child. The natural parents no longer have any legal rights or responsibilities with respect to the child (Scott, 1998-2006). The institution of adoption has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as the adoption world has undergone seismic shifts: the rise in international adoptions and the effects of global economics, adoptions by gays and lesbians, and celebrity adoptions. Adoption matters add to our understanding of reproduction, parenting, familial bonds, personal identity, and self knowledge.
Many people who live comfortably in developed countries and can not have a child turn to adoption. International adoptions are becoming very visible. International adoption has many positive and negative aspects for people trying to adopt. When choosing to adopt, most people want a younger child, which is often why they...
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