Issues of Confidentiality in Adoption: The Role of the Pediatrician

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Certificate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Court Order ◽  
Adult Adoptees ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Birth Parent ◽  
Birth Family

Adoption practices in the United States have been designed to protect each member of the adoption triad. Traditionally they preserve the anonymity and privacy of the birth parents. These practices have supported the concept that adoptive parents need to establish a relationship with their new child without concern of unwanted interference by members of the child's birth family. In addition, they emphasize protecting adopted children from potentially disturbing facts about their birth families and/or psychological confusion that might arise from any continued relationship with their birth families. To protect confidentiality in adoption, all records of the adoption proceedings are sealed. The child's original birth certificate is sealed, and a new one is issued that typically contains only the child's adoptive name and substitutes the names of the adoptive parents for the birth parents. The original birth certificate and adoption records can be opened only by a court order and only for "just cause." Recently, however, three states have developed open adoption records, and more than 30 other states have developed mutual consent registries.1 The exact statutes regarding mutual consent registries vary from state to state, but the basic concept allows adult adoptees and birth parents to register their desire to meet each other. If a mutual consent is achieved, identifying information can be released and a meeting may be facilitated. Some states require both parties to register independently. Other states allow a state agency to locate the birth parent(s) to determine whether consent will be granted to release information to the adult adoptee.1

scholarly journals Post-adoption Contact and Relationships with Birth Family Members

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-197
Author(s):  
Harriet Ward ◽  
Lynne Moggach ◽  
Susan Tregeagle ◽  
Helen Trivedi
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adult Adoptees ◽  
Adoptive Families ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
Children's Identity

AbstractThe chapter draws on data collected through responses to an online survey concerning 93 adoptees (44% of the cohort), completed on average 18 years after placement, and interviews focusing on 24 adult adoptees. Face-to-face post-adoption contact was a legal requirement. After placement with adoptive families, 93% of adoptees had contact with birth family members; at follow-up, 56% still saw at least one member of their birth family; 69% of both adoptees and adoptive parents thought contact was ultimately beneficial. There was minimal evidence of contact with birth parents destabilising placements. However, it introduced a ‘painful transparency’ for all parties and could be problematic. Over time, contact supported children’s identity needs by incorporating knowledge of their antecedents and could mitigate their difficulties with attachment, separation and loss. It forced all parties to engage with one another and helped adoptees achieve closure.

The Role of the Pediatrician in Adoption with Reference to ‘The Right to Know’: An Update

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-306
Author(s):  
S. Norman Sherry ◽  
Richard Baum ◽  
Agnes D. Lattimer ◽  
William C. Rieke ◽  
Burton Sokoloff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Certificate ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adoption Process ◽  
Court Order ◽  
Adoptive Family ◽  
Just Cause ◽  
Birth Parent ◽  
Original Record ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

The adoption process in our country traditionally has been designed to safeguard the rights of the adoptive parents, ensure the solidarity of the adoptive family, and preserve the anonymity of the birth parents. When adoption is finalized, the original birth certificate is "sealed" and a new certificate is issued in the name of the adoptive parents. Once sealed, the laws of most states specify that the original record can be opened only by court order and for "just cause." A few states have provisions for opening of the records on demand of the adoptees when they become adults. This provision frequently is true in theory but not in practice, and the definition of "just cause" has varied considerably from court to court. Most adoptive parents have warm and loving relationships with their adoptive children. Most try to pass on to them, at appropriate times, as much of the birth information as they know and are able to provide. Most adoptees have a warm and loving and truly bonded relationship with their adoptive parents. In spite of this, and regardless of their attachment to the adoptive parents, some adoptees have a compelling desire and/or need to learn of their birth parent or parents. Many adult adoptees and adoption specialists see this search as essential to the establishment of a sense of identity. Most reports of reunions indicate that adoptees have been pleased with the meeting and that their ties to their adoptive parents have been strengthened thereby. In addition, there is the growing body of law that has spoken to the right of people to know the content of various personal records.

Weaving a Family Narrative

2019 ◽  
pp. 275-312
Author(s):  
Abbie E. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Nature Versus Nurture ◽  
Family Narrative ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Birth Family

This chapter addresses how adoptive parents think about nature versus nurture, and whether and how these ideas change across their children’s life course. It explores how parents talk about the complex issue of similarities and differences between themselves and their adopted children—both those that may be immediately visible (e.g., skin color, hair), even early on in parenting, and those that are not as apparent until later on (e.g., abilities and interests). It considers whether and how adoptive parents invoke birth parents to help children to understand, make sense of, accept, and/or experience pride in aspects of themselves that may not be mirrored in their adoptive parents. Furthermore, the chapter explores how parents anticipate, make sense of, and address challenges in the domains of mental health and physical health in the context of varying levels of contact with and knowledge of birth family.

The Role of the Pediatrician in Adoption With Reference to "The Right To Know"

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 378-379
Author(s):  
◽  
Donald Lewis ◽  
George C. Cypress ◽  
Joseph H. Davis ◽  
Ruth C. Harris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Birth Certificate ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adoption Process ◽  
Court Order ◽  
Adoptive Family ◽  
Just Cause ◽  
The Right To Know ◽  
Original Record ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

The adoption process in our country traditionally has been designed to safeguard the rights of adoptive parents, insure the solidarity of the adoptive family, and preserve the anonymity of the natural parents. To accomplish this, when adoptions are finalized, the original birth certificate is "sealed" and a new certificate is issued in the name of the adoptive parents. Once sealed, the laws of most states specify that the original record can be opened only by court order and for "just cause." A few states have provisions for opening of the records on demand of the adoptee when that person becomes an adult. This provision often turns out to be true in theory but not in practice, and the definition of "just cause" has varied greatly from court to court. Most adoptive parents have warm and loving relationships with their adoptive children. Most try to pass on to them, at appropriate times, as much of the birth information as they know and are able to provide. Most adoptees have a warm and loving and truly bonded relationship with their adoptive parents. In spite of this, and regardless of their attachment to the adoptive parents, some adoptees, as they reach maturity, have a compelling desire to learn of their natural parent or parents. Many adult adoptees and adoption specialists see this search as essential to the establishment of a sense of identity. Most reports of reunions indicate that adoptees have been pleased with the meeting and that their ties to their adoptive parents have been strengthened thereby.

Adoption and Foster Care—The Pediatrician' Role

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-61
Author(s):  
Burton Sokoloff
Keyword(s):  
Foster Children ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Foster Families ◽  
Adoptive Family ◽  
Behavioral Learning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Psychiatric Problems

The United States now has approximately 2,500,000 adoptees under the age of 21—representing nearly 2% of the population in that age-group. In addition, about 350,000 children live with foster families in this country during any given year. These children and their families have inherent vulnerabilities and problems that pediatricians may overlook. Significant numbers of foster children and adoptees are seen with behavioral, learning, and psychiatric problems. It is important that continuing counseling be available to the adoptive family, commencing prior to the adoption procedure and following throughout the early adulthood of the adoptee. ADOPTION Uniqueness of Adoptio Adoption is a situation with emotions which can be best comprehended by those in the adoptive triad itself: the birth-parents, the adoptee, and the adoptive-parents. In the adoptive procedure a mother has given up a child she has borne; parents adopt the child of an unfamiliar background, and, unlike his peers, the child knows that he was not born to the parents who have reared him. Many adoption agencies have in the past advised the adoptive-parents to raise the child as their own, love him as their own, and concurrently remind him periodically that he is not their own! Frequently no further counseling would be suggested for these families.

scholarly journals “I’m More Than Just Adopted”: Stories of Genealogy in Intercountry Adoptive Families

Genealogy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Sarah Richards
Keyword(s):  
Hague Convention ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Intercountry Adoption ◽  
Adoptive Families ◽  
Family Work ◽  
Birth Country ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Birth Family

In contrast to the historical ‘blank slate’ approach to adoption, current policy places significant emphasis on providing children with knowledge; family history; biological connections; stories, a genealogy upon which to establish an authentic identity. The imperative for this complex, and often incomplete, genealogy is also explicit within the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption established in 1993 to ensure that intercountry adopted children will be provided with a genealogical ‘heritage’. Yet, despite the recurring dominance of this approach, ‘heritage’ remains an ambiguous dictum which holds the expectation that adopted children should have access to any available birth/first family information and acquire cultural competence about an often distant and removed birth country. Providing such heritage becomes the responsibility of intercountry adoptive parents. It is therefore unsurprising that this role has become part of how intercountry adoptive parents perform and display their parenting and family practices before and after adoption (Richards 2014a; 2018). Such family work is explicit in the stories that parents and children coconstruct about birth family, abandonment, China, and the rights of adopted children to belong first and foremost to a birth country. Using qualitative data provided by a social worker, eleven girls aged between five and twelve, and their parents, this article explores the role and changing significance of narratives as familial strategies for delivering such heritage obligations. Outlined in this discussion is the compulsion to provide a genealogical heritage by adoptive parents which can ultimately be resisted by their daughters as they seek alternative and changing narratives through which to construct their belongings and identities.

scholarly journals The Early Growth and Development Study: A Prospective Adoption Study From Birth Through Middle Childhood

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 412-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie D. Leve ◽  
Jenae M. Neiderhiser ◽  
Daniel S. Shaw ◽  
Jody Ganiban ◽  
Misaki N. Natsuaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Growth ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adoptive Parent ◽  
Primary Study ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Development Study ◽  
Adoption Study

The Early Growth and Development Study is a prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children recruited in two cohorts (N = 561 triads). The primary study aims are to examine how family, peer, and contextual processes affect children's adjustment, and to examine their interplay (mediation, moderation) with genetic influences. Participants were recruited through adoption agencies located throughout the United States following the birth of a child. Assessments are ongoing, in 9-month intervals until the child reaches 3 years of age and in 1-year intervals thereafter through age 9. Data collection includes the following primary constructs: child temperament, social behavior, school performance, mental health, and health; birth and adoptive parent personality characteristics, mental health, competence, stress, health, context, substance use, parenting, and marital relations; and pregnancy use of drugs and maternal stress during pregnancy. DNA and salivary cortisol samples have also been collected. Analyses have indicated evidence for genotype-environment interactions during early childhood. Study procedures, sample representativeness (including tests of potential confounds in the adoption design), and an overview of findings to date are summarized, and future plans are described.

When Love is Not Enough: Parenting an Adopted Child with Mental Illness

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele D. Hanna ◽  
Erin Boyce ◽  
Diane Mulligan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Residential Treatment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Treatment Center ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Adopted Child ◽  
Adoptive Families

This article presents the results of a qualitative study designed to explore the experiences of adoptive parents who placed an adopted child with mental illness in a residential treatment center (RTC). Twenty-four adoptive families from across the United States who placed an adopted child in residential treatment were interviewed. The adopted children represented various types of adoption including public child welfare, domestic infant, and intercountry adoption. Parents reported feeling victimized by their child and by the very systems designed to help them, including child welfare, mental health, health care, and education. The findings reveal signs of trauma in the adoptive parents as a result of their experiences. The article concludes with recommendations from adoptive parents for adoption, mental health, and residential treatment professionals who work with adopted children and their families.

scholarly journals The Early Growth and Development Study: A Prospective Adoption Design

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie D. Leve ◽  
Jenae M. Neiderhiser ◽  
Xiaojia Ge ◽  
Laura V. Scaramella ◽  
Rand D. Conger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth And Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Growth ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Family Processes ◽  
Adoptive Parent ◽  
Primary Study ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Development Study ◽  
Adoption Study

AbstractThe Early Growth and Development Study is a prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children (N = 359 triads) that was initiated in 2003. The primary study aims are to examine how family processes mediate or moderate the expression of genetic influences in order to aid in the identification of specific family processes that could serve as malleable targets for intervention. Participants in the study are recruited through adoption agencies located throughout the United States, following the birth of a child. Assessments occur at 6-month intervals until the child reaches 3 years of age. Data collection includes the following primary constructs: infant and toddler temperament, social behavior, and health; birth and adoptive parent personality characteristics, psychopathology, competence, stress, and substance use; adoptive parenting and marital relations; and prenatal exposure to drugs and maternal stress. Preliminary analyses suggest the representativeness of the sample and minimal confounding effects of current trends in adoption practices, including openness and selective placement. Future plans are described.

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