Both speakers Linda and Mary, seemed to not favor the open adoption because
they did not want to know their birth parents very much. What they did want openness
rights to have access to their medical history. They both were happy that their
birth parents placed them in adoption. If the only way to get access to their
medical history is through open adoption then they would probably be in favor
of open adoption. Knowing your medical history is a major key part of yourself
and it is beneficial to an individual for future health issues. Whereas closed
adoption would not reveal any information, “The regime of closed adoptions and
sealed records that forever serves the ties of adopted children and biological
kin understandably raises ethical concerns, whatever its legal or
constitutional status (Allen 2005, 60).”
Pertman 2011, points out that pregnant
women/ birth-mother's these days in order to proceed with their adoption plans
need to know that, “…they will always know their children are in loving
families, and may even remain part of their lives (43).” This creates openness
for both the birth mother and the adoptive parent(s) in some cases this works
out the best. According to Allen 2005, “Open adoption policies will be
especially attractive to anyone who subscribes to the fusion model of adoption
(53).” Fusion is two families fusing to make a bigger one. To some families
this is important to maintain a relationship with the other family. Open
adoption allows more intimate exchanges of personal information and
opportunities for birth parents to see the child (53). This is applied to some birth
parents and adoptive parents but not all.
“Open adoption increases the number
of children available by making adoption more attractive to birth parents
(Allen 2005, 57).” Having open adoption for the birth parents lets them have
some control to decide which adoptive parents they want for the child and it
reassures their decision to place the child for adoption. I find these
convincing because I would agree with most of these points. I would not want to
be in Linda’s position to have to go through many processes just to know my
medical history. In the end I may not even end up knowing it because the birth
parents do not approve. I would rather have open opportunities to know about my
birth parents than to be limited and by it even if I do not want to have a
personal relationship with them.
-Ka L.
Paula K.'s GRADED REPLY #4
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the importance of knowing your medical history. I think, like both Linda and Mary said, each person has a right to access their medical history. However I also think that some birthparents, like Jill from Anita Allen’s article and Mary’s birthmother might overstep their role, which is why some parents probably prefer closed adoptions. I think the best option would be to create a medium between open and closed adoptions in which the children can have access to their birth certificate, medical history, and the social history of their parents without actually having to get in contact with their parents. That way, if the children don’t want to get in contact with their birth parents, like in Mary’s case, they have all the information they would need. In this situation, at least the children would have a choice. This was one of the points that Mary touched on her talk – that through the whole process she never felt like she had a choice about whether to get in contact and maintain a relationship with her mother, this was always encouraged and expected. At birth, children obviously have no say about whether they want a closed or open adoption, so giving them access to their medical history would finally give them some opportunity to control their situation.
Paula K.