History of Open Adoption

I saw an interesting article a few weeks back. Did you know that during the 19th century almost all adoptions were handled informally? The example used in the article was that if a woman was pregnant and wanted to place her child she did with whomever she wanted. Generally the child was placed with a family member or someone from her local town. There were no agencies, counselors, attorneys or facilitators. There were no legal papers, and the government was not involved.

It was late in the 19th century that closed adoption came about. Children were considered illegitimate and locked up and hidden away. Natural mothers were labeled as outcasts and bad girls and were whisked away to give birth at a secret location.

Agencies soon had power over the child and the natural mother had little if any rights to their babies. The infants were torn from the natural mothers arms and taken to orphanages where the adoptive parents picked out babies and children with no background or medical history. All of this was because of the change in society. Laws making adoption secret were passed in the late 1940’s and 50’s.

It was the 60’s and 70’s that the moral backlash that began the push towards open adoption. Unmarried women giving birth were no longer considered bad and they began to demand the righ to pick who might parent their children. As the children of the closed adoption era grew older they also began to demand the right to their own personal histories.

It was in the 80’s and 90’s that the change from closed adoption evolved into what is now known as open adoption. It is viewed as much healthier for both the natural mother and the child. Laws are still changing today as adoptees, natural parents and adoptive parents demand the rights that belong to them. However, it is important to remember that there are still issues with open adoption that need to be addressed. To list a few they are:

1. Natural mothers aren’t legally entitled to have contact with the children they place for adoption.
2. The Ongoing Contact Agreement is simply an agreement between the natural parents and the adoptive parents. If the adoptive parents choose to change their phone number or move across the world or ignore letters from the natural mother they can legally do so.
3. The federal government and state government have their own sets of laws regarding adoption. None of them are clear or easy to understand.

The article at about.com states that “when an adoption in finalized, the ongoing contact plan should be a legally binding contract”. Bottom line is that all adoptions whether closed or open need to be legally allowed and respected by all. If there was a single standard that all could follow things would be less stressful, painful, and worrisome in the adoption community.

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