What type of adoption has most benefits?

Open

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by Susan Donley

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Historically, there have been two types of adoption:

* Open: Both the adopted child and the adoptive parent may have access to the child's biological family and life history.
* Closed: Neither the adopted child nor adoptive parent has access to the child's biological history.

Today, with kinship adoptions of children by their biological grandparent(s) or other relatives, sibling group or adolescent adoptions, and with foster-to-adopt adoptions from child protective service agencies, the distinction between open and closed adoptions is less clearly defined. Even some international adoptions are open because adoptive parents can meet with and exchange information with their child's biological family.

Consider, for the purposes of this discussion, these new definitions of the two types of adoption:

* Open: Adoptive parents allow their adopted minor child access to his biological family. Access may include, on one end of the spectrum, information only; to, on the other end of the spectrum, unsupervised visits with his biological family.
* Closed: Adoptive parents do not allow their adopted minor child access to his biological family.

While there are benefits to both types of adoption, open adoptions have the most benefits.

It is important to keep foremost in your mind, the primary benefit of adoption. Children are adopted for their benefit not for the adoptive parents' benefit. All children deserve loving parents, a safe home, nutritious food, and quality education. Children who do not have these necessities are adopted by adults who can provide them.

Understanding that an adoption is for the child's benefit helps us to answer the questions that confirm an open adoption provides the most benefits:

Should an adopted child understand why he has different physical features than his adoptive family? Absolutely. Growing up, children who do not look like their parents are teased by not only their siblings but by school mates and other children whether they're adopted or not. Children need to feel like they belong. If their skin color is olive while their siblings' or parents' skin is fair, they struggle to understand why they look different. In an open adoption, even young children can be told why they look different than the rest of their family. Physical differences can be explored and celebrated. Differences can be appreciated as diversity. Children who understand why they don't look like Mommy or Daddy but feel that their differences are valued and important have higher self esteem.

Should an adolescent continue to have access to his biological family once adopted? Absolutely. In many adoptive situations, adolescents are separated not only from their biological parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, but from their siblings, best friends, teachers, church connections, and other relationships. While, in most cases, these relationships failed to provide the necessities to survive, they, nevertheless, were established relationships. Moving into an adoptive home and being denied to existing connections would be extremely detrimental to healthy mental and emotional development. In an open adoption, adolescents can learn to differentiate healthy, supportive relationships when contrasted with the abusive and harmful relationships they might have suffered in their biological family's environment. Adolescents with healthy role models can mature into healthy young adults.

Should adopted children have access to their medical history? Absolutely. More and more conditions and diseases are associated with heredity. Adopted children who have access to their biological family can track their medical history freely. With the information about their biological parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings, adopted children can inform their medical care providers about their heredity. With this information, both medical care providers and adopted children can make the best and informed decisions about medical treatment.

Open adoptions allow young children to appreciate and value their physical features and differences from their adoptive families. Open adoptions allow adolescents to continue important established relationships with relatives and friends while allowing them to differentiate healthy and supportive relationships from abusive and harmful ones. Open adoptions allow adoptive children, throughout their lives, to choose the best medical treatments for their conditions. Based on these important benefits, it is clear that open adoptions provide the most benefits to adopted children.

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