In every adoption there is a triad or triangle. There are 3 groups of people involved, the child, the adoptive parent and the birth parent. As such, there are unique needs and perspectives from each side of the triad to be considered.
- Adopted Child: The needs of the child include parents who provide a stable home environment and who love and support the child. The unique needs of the child may involve assisting the child with identity issues especially through adolescence when these issues may emerge. The voice of the adopted child seems to be the dominant one in terms of adoption rights. The civil rights ideology fits in here as the proponentsof this ideology argue that adopted children have a right to their birth identity. We will focus in on some of this debate as we conduct our critical analysis of the AARA and add futher to the argument of "rights" in our revised policy recommendations.
- Adoptive parent: Need to have an understanding of child development and how adoption may affect their child in terms of bonding and forming attachments. They also need to be equipped to tell their children about their adoption. Adoptive parents have been more of the forgotten group in the triad in terms of rights. The psychology of adoption Ideology proponents would reflect the voice of this group to some extent.
- Birth Parent: Need to understand that they may experience feelings such as grief and sadness, possibly anger or regret around their decision and the fact that they may continue to experience feelings around anniversaries and birthdays. Search rights, identity rights and psychology of adoption ideologies apply to this group. The AARA includes revisions that reflect the birth parent rights to privacy.
For more info see http://www.childsafety.qld.gov.au/
2 comments:
Each part of the triangle has such different needs and concerns that it must be hard to balance. Who has more rights than the other? I think the child who is adopted should have the right to determine if they want contact with their birth parents. But can a birth parent find the child without their permission? I don't know how I feel about that. But I don't know the facts.
Adoptees should have access to their birth history and in some cases identifying information. The big problem that I have is that birth parents may not be informed about the disclosure and therefore they could have tumultuous reamifications in disclosure. A great deal of attention must and should be given to the vito policy. Where to get the information and how to access the forms.
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