| How can you identify an adopted child from one that | | | | means to make it happen. Some people take fertility |
| isn't adopted? You can't. Adoption is when you legally | | | | shots; while others try artificial insemination. There |
| take a child and put them in a home with people who | | | | are many other ways that people will try, before |
| aren't their birth parents. After this is done, the | | | | they give up on the fact that they can't have their |
| adoptive parents have all the rights that a birth | | | | own child. For some people, adoption is actually their |
| parent would have and the birth parents no longer | | | | last attempt at having children. |
| have any rights where the child is concern. | | | | There are two forms of adoption, open and closed. |
| There are many reasons that lead to adoptions. Back | | | | Open adoptions may allow some contact between |
| in earlier times, it brought shame on a family if they | | | | the birth parents and the child, while closed adoptions |
| had a young unwed daughter. So, they usually sent | | | | forbid any contact between the two. Open adoptions |
| her away to have her baby and of course she had | | | | aren't a new thing. In the past, most adoptions were |
| to give the baby up. In some cases, the child's | | | | informal and without the need of the court. In fact, |
| parents die unexpectedly and there's no one around | | | | many times, the child was actually given to a friend |
| to raise them. There are times when the birth | | | | or family member to raise. It wasn't a secret as to |
| mother realizes that she just isn't ready to raise a | | | | who was raising the child or to who gave birth to the |
| child, so in the best interests of herself and the child, | | | | child. In the past, closed adoptions were viewed as |
| she puts her child up for adoption. In some cases a | | | | being covered in secrecy. Because of the shame of |
| child or children maybe removed from their birth | | | | being an unwed mother, the early adoption agencies |
| parents. If the parents are abusive or are found to | | | | felt it was best to keep the birth mothers name a |
| be harming their children in some way; the legal | | | | secret. |
| system can come in and remove the children. If the | | | | Adoptions have served a great purpose in our |
| parents can't convince the court that they can raise | | | | society. There were and are a lot of kids out there |
| their children responsibly, then the court could put the | | | | who need a good stable home life. But as you look |
| children up for adoption. | | | | into the past, it's still amazing how all the blame for |
| The main reason most people adopt is because they | | | | having a baby is directed at the female. The woman |
| can't have a child naturally. For obvious reasons, most | | | | didn't get pregnant by herself, yet the man is never |
| people that want kids, would rather have them | | | | discussed in terms of having shame. Why was it so |
| naturally. They want to experience the process of | | | | easy to leave the women out there to shoulder the |
| going through child birth. To some people this process | | | | burden all by themselves? |
| is so important, that they'll go through alternative | | | | |