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Tyler Wade
English Composition
December 6th, 2012
Open Adoption
All across the world children are being born into homes that are unstable, and unsafe,
Over 2 million children under the age of eighteen have been adopted in the United States. Author
Dudley states that adoption can be defined as “a process by which children are brought together
with adults who are not their biological parents to form a family” (Dudley). In other words, those
who are unable to take care of their child or feel that the child deserves a better home, usually
resort to the adoption option. Adoption was established to make a better living for the child and
to protect the child from any danger he or she may encounter in the original home.
Most people seem to assume that there is only one form of adoption. People who are
unaware of the two different types of adoption mostly are familiar with the option that is known
as the confidential option. Confidential adoption is when there is no contact between any of the
parties especially the child and foster parents. In the article “Biological Mother’s Grief: The
Postadoptive Experience in Open Versus” by Blanton he states “In confidential adoption, only
non identifying and medical information regarding the parents is exchanged through agency,
between adoptive and biological parents” (Blanton 526). Essentially what Blanton is stating is
that a confidential adoption involves no contact between the biological parents and the child.
Though it is not stated directly, Blanton gives the impression that all contact is through the
adoption agency but is rare.
Aside from the option of having a confidential adoption, when the situation permits an
open adoption can be chosen. An open adoption is the second form of adoption that many people
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don’t completely understand. Open adoption is more beneficial to the child than confidential
adoption because, having an open adoption allows the child to know all parts of his or her life.
Open adoption is a lot different from confidential adoption. Open adoption gives the
adoption more flexibility and allows contact to be made between all parties. Blanton defines
open adoption as: “Some degrees of sharing information and/or actual contact between adoptive
and biological parents that may occur during the adoption process” (Blanton 526). Ultimately
open adoption gives the child the opportunity to be able to have contact with his or hers
biological parents after the adoption process is finalized.
In discussions of open adoption, its controversial because it is misunderstood. A common
reason some choose open adoption is because they still want contact to be allowed with the child.
However, others believe that more people should be involved in the adoption process (Maynard).
The article “Permanency Mediation: A Path to Open Adoption for Children in Out-of-Home
Care” states the importance of having a mediator involved to help the adoption process. For
instance author JoAnne Maynard states that “Participants in permanency mediation have found it
to be a successful practice. During mediation it allows participants to understand open adoption
and dealing with the changes in family structures and boundaries, and address their own feelings
and concerns, and establish reliable means of communications with each other” (Maynard).
Ultimately what Maynard is addressing is that mediation for all parties involved in the open
adoption process sets up rules as well as counseling to help make the process go a lot smoother.
The article “Initial Validation of the Open Adoption Scale: Measuring the Influence of Adoption
Myths on Attitudes Toward Open Adoption;” also gives supporting detail that others are
involved during adoption, it is never just the biological parents, the child, and the adoptive
parents left alone during the process. For example, Donna Brown states that “the adoption
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agency could act as a mediator between birth and adoptive families for indirect methods of
contact such as letters, photographs, and birthday and holiday cards” (Brown). Sometimes it is
not just up to the immediate parties involved to make the decisions when it comes to staying in
contact. Many individuals like using the option of having an agency involved in the contact that
goes on to keep the adoption running smoothly, which is another reason why open adoption is
more beneficial.
On the contrary the benefits of open adoption, or even confidential is: many children as
well as biological parents suffer from emotional problems post adoption that counselors and
social workers are there to help ease. In the article “Open Adoption ‘What Does the Average
Person Think?” discusses the issues that may occur with biological parents. “Biological parents
