Talk:Open adoption

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[edit] Initial comments

I believe that eveyone that can have a kid should also be able to have the responsibilities it takes to take care of the kid. no one should abort there baby or put them up for adoption.

You are 100% correct.

SO, you would rather have a pregnant 15 year old, drop out of school to care for a child when she is still a child herself? According to the statements above, no help should be provided to this teen mother. Adoption is a very viable alternatie as it allows a second chance both to the birth mother and the child. 68.4.74.17 20:40, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Ideally nobody would get pregnant unless they could handle it.
Wikipedia is not really a place for these comments, though I agree with the above statement. In response to the pregnant teenager cenario, that's why you find a foster family or relative to help you until you yourself can assume responsibiltiy. Emperor001 (talk) 17:57, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citations

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[edit] Info from adoption

Here's some info from adoption, it was put the wrong spot. Further, it should be shortened and sumarized. And the conclusion at the end is totally inappropriate. WLU 23:09, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Other adoptions are open from the start with expectant parents meeting prospective adopters and agreeing on a mutual arrangement of contact which may be through letters, sending photos or in personal visits. True open adoption involves a relationship between the child and his original family, not just between the two sets of parents. A longitudinal study of changes in adoption practices related to openness found increasing numbers of agencies are offering fully disclosed adoption - from 36% in 1987 to 79% in 1999. Fully disclosed adoption is defined in "The Impact of Openness on Adoption Agency Practices: A Longitudinal Perspective" as "when the parties share information, and/or meetings, and/or phone calls, and the sharing is conducted directly with the other party." According to the study by Henney, McRoy, Ayers-Lopez and Grotevant, by 1999 only one-third of agencies were offering confidential adoptions ("no information is shared beyond 6 months after placement") and none were offering confidential only. The study, published in Adoption Quarterly, Volume 6, Number 3, consisted of phone interviews with private adoption agency staff in 1987-1989 (31 agencies), 1993 (34 agencies) and 1999 (24 agencies). The shift in practice has occurred primarily because of birthmother demand - in 1999, 87% of agencies reported that as a factor for the practice change. To order this article, go to: http://www.haworthpressinc.com/store/product.asp?sku=J145.2000 As of December 2005, 22 U.S. states have statutes that allow open adoption contact agreements, while 28 do not.[1] In most jurisdictions, however, such agreements are not legally enforceable. Openness in adoption is healthier for adoptees who suffer less feelings of rejection and abandonment and are not confused as to who is their mother.

[edit] History of open adoption

I moved the following paragraph here because it paints confidential adoption as having come about via questionable motives, yet doesn't have a reliable source (a citation needs more than an author and a year). --Ed Brey (talk) 18:10, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Adoptions became closed when social pressures mandated that families preserve the myth that they were formed biologically. One researcher has referred to these families, that made every attempt to match the child physically to their adoptive families, as 'as if' families.[2]

[edit] Merge from adoption

When merging from Adoption, a few topics had duplicate coverage, in which case I retained the coverage that seemed the most relevant and unbiased. For the history section, I wrote a more comprehensive treatment. There had been a paragraph that open adoptions aren't new which I didn't include, instead focusing on a context of adoptions between parties who don't know each other. The statement, "In many cases, adoption was seen as a social support: young children were adopted out not only to help their parents (by reducing the number of children they had to support) but also to help another family by providing an apprentice," should be re-included with a source and context (how open were such adoptions?). The statement, "Openness became the norm when infants available for adoption became scarce, and birth parents had the ability to negotiate acceptable terms for their children, including the ability to participate in decisions about who they wanted to parent their child." would need a source to be included. --Ed Brey (talk) 12:33, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

The history of adoption is currently a bit disjointed and confusing. One point of clarification needed is to differentiate open adoption between parties that knew each other previously and those that were matched only after deciding to adopt. This confusion makes the clause "Although open adoptions are thought to be a relatively new phenomenon" confusing. --Ed Brey (talk) 11:30, 3 May 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Proposed merge with closed adoption

Much of the content on Closed adoption overlaps with Adoption and Open adoption. I propose merging Open adoption and Closed adoption into a single article Openness in adoption. Thoughts? --Ed Brey (talk) 12:34, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

WHOAH! Stop. You've already made major changes to this article without discussing them first. I notice the history of open adoption has now become a history of closed adoption and strangely now neglects to mention at all that all US adoptions were open until the 20th century. Instead it states the opposite... Let's talk about these changes and getting some balance back before you go making any more, please. BastunBaStun not BaTsun 16:38, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
Hmm, you can have an "open adoption" with "open records" and a "closed adoption" with "closed records," an "open adoption" with "closed records" and a "closed adoption" with "open records." I would urge caution here too. Шизомби (talk) 21:26, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
Reverted merge of content from adoption - no consensus for it. By all means expand what's here in a NPOV and referenced way, but let's keep the accuracy. Adoption in most of the Western world started as open, then became closed in the last century, before openning again. BastunBaStun not BaTsun 07:57, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Regarding questions on the summarization merge not related to the proposed merge with closed adoption, I added more info on the merge to the merge section above. --Ed Brey (talk) 11:30, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Pro: The histories of open and closed adoption are tied together, and so the history covers both; a combined openness in adoption article would naturally address both. --Ed Brey (talk) 11:30, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Pro: Regarding the variability in the various degrees of openness (e.g. an "Open adoption" with "closed records"), I believe addressing these would be an advantage of a combined "openness in adoption" page. --Ed Brey (talk) 11:30, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Pro: Would make information on the adoption controversy more accessible because it will not be scattered as it is now. (Avoiding information scattering is also a benefit of having a clear distinction between the summary in Adoption versus the main article.) --Ed Brey (talk) 00:09, 12 May 2008 (UTC)