» issues in adoption & foster care » open records & open adoption » symposium on openness in adoption » openness in adoption -  general values about openness in adoption

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General Values About Openness in Adoption

More of this Feature • Introduction • Opening Remarks • Open Records • Adoptee Access to Records • Opposition to Access • Practive vs Theory • Post-Adoption Contact • Types of Adoption • Enforceable Agreements • Values About Openness • Lobbying 101 • My Final Take • Biographical Info

1. Adoption has a lifelong impact on all members of the adoption triad.
2. The denial of differences between adoptive family and other families is harmful to the people involved.
3. An adopted child always has two sets of parents.
4. The adopted child will always have a bond to the birth parents.
5. No matter how adequate the adoptive parents, they did not give the adopted child their genes, ancestors, or birth.
6. Secrets are a barrier to family intimacy; secrets around birth families make children feel there is something wrong with those families or them.
7. Adopted children must at some point in their life deal with the loss of their birth parents and the reason for their adoption.
8. In adoption, a birth parent knows that somewhere out there the child still exists.
9. Openness allows the adopted child the opportunity to appreciate and understand birth relatives' strengths and that they care.
10. Openness offers a range of possibilities in order to encourage a comfortable fitting together of these two families.