Do adopted children have the right to know who their biological parents are?
ANGEL
2012/05/14 01:05:50
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Whether or not adopted children should know their birth parents is an
emotionally charged question. In recent years, the stigma previously
attached to adoption has all but vanished. Open adoptions, in which
adoptees continue to enjoy some level of contact with their birth
parents, are becoming more common each year.
The case against closed adoptions:
The most common reasons for wanting a closed adoption (no contact with birth parents,
and often no information about birth parents) are based are listed as:
1. Secrecy is necessary to protect the parties involved
2. Closed adoption helps birth parents to heal and move on with their lives
3. Knowing birth relatives can lead an adopted child to have divided loyalties and identity confusion
4. Openness will create competition between the adoptive and birth families and interfere with bonding in the adoptive family
5. Adoptees who are well-adjusted and happy in their adoptive families will have no
need or desire to learn about their birth families.
The most obvious reason for adopted children to know their birth parents is to provide the adopted child with a family medical history. In addition to the practical reasons an adopted child should know his
birth parents, there are a plethora of emotional reasons as well.
An adopted child may experience a sense of disconnection if she doesn't know where she was born. Often, the circumstances leading to a child being adopted are unpleasant, and
adoptive parents may naturally want to shield the child from the
details. However, in the absence of facts, the adopted child may imagine
a scenario far worse than the truth. The truth, unpleasant though it
may be, is at least the truth and can be dealt with in time with
maturity.
Do adopted children have the right to know who their biological parents are?
NOTE: There are too many SH polls that divide people due to their religious and sexual preference. I just want to change the tide and focus on polls that bring people of diverse backgrounds together to the table, commenting on topics that actually bring them together. So if you are involved in Scientology, Christianity, Judaism, Jehovah's witness, an Atheist, Agnostic, homosexual, bisexual, etc. please feel free to comment. You might find that you have more in common than you previously thought.
emotionally charged question. In recent years, the stigma previously
attached to adoption has all but vanished. Open adoptions, in which
adoptees continue to enjoy some level of contact with their birth
parents, are becoming more common each year.
The case against closed adoptions:
The most common reasons for wanting a closed adoption (no contact with birth parents,
and often no information about birth parents) are based are listed as:
1. Secrecy is necessary to protect the parties involved
2. Closed adoption helps birth parents to heal and move on with their lives
3. Knowing birth relatives can lead an adopted child to have divided loyalties and identity confusion
4. Openness will create competition between the adoptive and birth families and interfere with bonding in the adoptive family
5. Adoptees who are well-adjusted and happy in their adoptive families will have no
need or desire to learn about their birth families.
The most obvious reason for adopted children to know their birth parents is to provide the adopted child with a family medical history. In addition to the practical reasons an adopted child should know his
birth parents, there are a plethora of emotional reasons as well.
An adopted child may experience a sense of disconnection if she doesn't know where she was born. Often, the circumstances leading to a child being adopted are unpleasant, and
adoptive parents may naturally want to shield the child from the
details. However, in the absence of facts, the adopted child may imagine
a scenario far worse than the truth. The truth, unpleasant though it
may be, is at least the truth and can be dealt with in time with
maturity.
Do adopted children have the right to know who their biological parents are?
NOTE: There are too many SH polls that divide people due to their religious and sexual preference. I just want to change the tide and focus on polls that bring people of diverse backgrounds together to the table, commenting on topics that actually bring them together. So if you are involved in Scientology, Christianity, Judaism, Jehovah's witness, an Atheist, Agnostic, homosexual, bisexual, etc. please feel free to comment. You might find that you have more in common than you previously thought.
Top Opinion
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Nam Era Vet #1 DNA TLC 2012/05/14 01:21:09Yes
+8Well since my wife was kidnapped from her biological Cherokee family by a government bureaucrat during the 1950s government stupid assimilation of Native Americans program and given to a white family, then she saw her biological briefly and they said they never gave her up that she got sick as a baby and when they took her to the hospital for care they said to leave her over night. When they came back in the morning she was taken, I think that a one size fits all application of children not meeting their biological parents is not very wise. Now she has to fight to keep her identity as a Native woman because it was stolen from her.
I think that the child should be able to go to the facility from which they were adopted and request to meet their biological parents. The facility can contact the biological parent to see if they are open to a meeting.
I also think that the adoptive family should be in the loop if the child is under 18, to determine whether this is something they can handle or if they feel that the child needs to mature and wait until they are older.
I really think that the adoptive parents should meet them first to make sure that kind of situation would not happen.
She was born in England, and she applied for her birth certificate when she reached 18.The original birth certificate gave her mother's name, occupation, date of her birth and address at the time of birth. It also gave similar details about the father. There was also an addendum with some medical history and details about ethnicity in the mothers particular case.
Through this she was able to trace both her birth parents, sadly both of them wanted no contact whatsoever. She admitted she had felt rejected and devastated at the time but had no regrets that she had finally traced them. This is the only note of caution I would add when tracing you're birth parents, that they might not be as keen on reuniting with you as you are with them. So long as you understand that, I feel a person has the ultimate right to know their birth parent if they so choose.
Life is harsh sometimes... you can't sugar-coat every situation.
I decided to change the question... the woman that gave birth to my children are NOT parents... they are incubators (the birth mother). The birth father was a sperm donor. It will be however important to me when the time is right, for them to know that another woman gave them life and that they have siblings.
I do however believe that the birth mother showed the greatest love of all because she could have chosen to end their life. Yet, she chose to give them life, and give them life with a couple that could give them what she couldn't.
I believe when the time is right for all adoptive parents to tell their children (if they choose to) that they should leave it up to the child(ren); but know that there is a difference between a biological parent and nurturing parent.