Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with parents other than the birth parents. An adoption order has the effect of severing the parental responsibilities and rights of the birth parents and transferring those responsibilities and rights onto the adoptive parents. After the finalization of an adoption, there is no legal difference between adopted children and those born to the parents. There are several kinds of adoption, which can be defined both by effect (e.g., whether the adoption is open or closed) and by location and the origin of the child (i.e., domestic or international adoption).

Types of Adoption (by effect)

In most jurisdictions, adoption begins with the decision of the birth parents to place their unborn baby or newborn child with another family. Birth parents may be able to choose what family they would like their child to belong to. Depending on jurisdiction and local law, they may already know of a family that wants to adopt, or they may find people who want to adopt by going to a lawyer, social services, or by finding a private or state agency that facilitates adoptions. Privately arranged adoptions are illegal in some jurisdictions. The birth parents may have the option of choosing whether they want an open, semi-open, or closed adoption. They may be given Parent Profiles to look at and choose from, or the the agency may choose a family for them.

Open Adoption

An open adoption is where the adopted person has access to their file and/or original records. This may be a right available at certain ages - e.g., at age 18, a person adopted in the United Kingdom becomes automatically entitled to their birth certificate and may access their adoption records.

Another definition of open adoption is where birth parents decide that they would like to meet the adoptive parents before they choose to place their baby with them. If the birth parents are comfortable with the family, the relationship may continue to grow. Even when the adoption is finalized, the relationship can be very personal, and can include visits, phone calls, and exchanging letters, pictures or e-mails. The adopted child can meet his/her birthfamily and communication is as open as the parties involved decide upon. In some jurisdictions, open adoptions are not legally enforceable agreements. As of December 2005, for example, 22 U.S. states have legal provisions for enforceable open adoption contact agreements, while 28 do not.

Semi-Open Adoption

In a semi-open adoption, the birth parents may meet the adoptive parents one or several times and then have no more physical contact. Letters and pictures may be exchanged directly or via a third party, such as an adoption agency, throughout the years. The relationship may remain semi-open or may evolve into open or closed.

Closed Adoption

In some closed adoptions, non-identifying information is shared between the parties involved, such as medical history, up to the point of placement. After the adoption is legalized, no further information is shared between the adoptive and birth parents.

In other closed adoptions, no information is shared between the parties involved. This may occur because of the law in the jurisdiction concerned, or court order, such as when a child is removed from the home by the state because of abuse or neglect. It may also occur because the parties involved do not want any contact.

Domestic Adoption

A domestic adoption is the placement of a child for adoption within the country in which he or she was born and normally resides. A special case is an interstate adoption - where an adoption occurs across state lines in the U.S. or Russia, for example, or within different Canadian provinces. In such cases, additional regulations may apply.

Foster Care Adoption

Foster care adoption is a type of domestic adoption where the child is initially placed into a foster care system and is subsequently placed for adoption. Children may be placed into foster care for a variety of reasons, including removal from the home of the birth family by a government agency because of maltreatment of the child by the birth family. Maltreatment can take the form of neglect or abuse. In most adoptions regarding foster children, the foster parents decide to adopt and become the legal parents. In some jurisdictions, adoptive parents are licensed as, and technically considered, foster parents while the adoption is being finalized. Altogether, of the 127,407 adoptions in the U.S. in 2001, about 51,000 occurred through the foster care system.

The National Adoption Center found that 52% of adoptable children (meaning those children in U.S. foster care freed for adoption) had symptoms of attachment disorder. A study by Dante Cicchetti found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants exhibited attachment disorder symptoms (disorganized subtype).

Children with histories of maltreatment, such as physical and psychological neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, are at risk of developing severe psychiatric problems. These children are likely to develop Reactive attachment disorder (RAD). These children may be described as experiencing trauma-attachment problems. The trauma experienced is the result of abuse or neglect, inflicted by a primary caregiver, which disrupts the normal development of secure attachment. Such children are at risk of developing a disorganized attachment. Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms, as well as depressive, anxiety, and acting-out symptoms.

Intra-Family Adoption

Not all adoptions are from outside of the family. An intra-family adoption occurs when a child is adopted by an existing close family member and/or his or her partner. A common example is a "step-parent adoption", where the new partner of a parent may legally adopt a child from the parent's previous relationship. Intra-family adoption can also occur through surrender, as a result of parental death, or when the birthparent cannot care for the child and a family member agrees to take over.

International Adoption

International adoption is the placing of a child for adoption outside that child’s country of birth. The laws of different countries vary in their willingness to allow international adoptions. Some countries, such as China and Vietnam, have relatively well-established rules and procedures for foreign adopters to follow, while others, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for example, expressly forbid it. Some countries, notably many African nations, have extended residency requirements that in effect rule out most international adoptions. And some countries such as Romania have closed to international adoption altogether.

Recognising some of the difficulties and challenges associated with international adoption, and in an effort to protect those involved from the corruption and exploitation which sometimes accompanies it, the Hague Conference on Private International Law developed the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which came into force on 1 May 1995. To date it has been ratified in 70 countries.

Reasons for Adoption:

Birth Family

Adoptions occur for many reasons. Birth parents may place their child for adoption because they are unable to adequately care for the child. In the US and UK, the most common reason children are placed for adoption is because of removal from the home due to maltreatment by their birth parents. Children fall into three groups according to the reason for their adoption: relinquished infants (14%), those whose parents had requested adoption in complex circumstances (24%), and those children required by social services and the courts to be adopted (62%).

Other reasons are that the birth parents are not in the position to raise a child and doing so would interfere with their future plans and goals, gender preference, or societal stigma towards single parenthood. In other countries, such as China, social policies lead to the abandonment of large numbers of children who are then placed in orphanages, some of whom are then adopted.

Some birth parents involuntarily lose their parental rights. This may occur when children are abused, neglected or abandoned. Eventually, if the parents cannot resolve the problems that caused or contributed to the harm caused to their children (such as alcohol or drug abuse), a court may terminate their parental rights and the children may then be adopted.

In some cases, parents' rights have been terminated when their ethnic or cultural group has been deemed unfit by the controlling government. Historically, the so-called Stolen Generation of Aboriginal people in Australia were affected by such policies, as were Native Americans in the United States and First Nations of Canada. Moreover, unwed mothers in many countries still are (and in many more countries used to be) pressured or forced by families, religious bodies or governments to relinquish their children for adoption; illegitimacy was or is a major social stigma, to the mother or child (and sometimes to the father too). These practices of the past have become emotionally-charged social and political issues in recent years.

Adoptive Parents

The reasons why people want to adopt children vary, as well. The inability to biologically reproduce is a common reason, often due to infertility. Some single people and same-sex couples often adopt because of the lack of a partner of the opposite sex or a lack of desire to use a surrogate or sperm donor. In many Western countries, step-parent adoption is the most common form of adoption as people choose to cement a new family following divorce or death of one parent.

Some fertile couples or individuals adopt children. Some may choose to do this instead of creating a new life, in order to avoid contributing to perceived overpopulation, or out of the belief that it is more responsible to care for otherwise parent-less children than to reproduce. Others may do so to avoid passing on inheritable diseases (e.g., Tay-Sachs disease), or out of health concerns relating to pregnancy and childbirth. Still others feel that given the challenges of carrying a baby to term, adoption is the best way to grow a family. Others believe that it is an equally valid form of family building, neither better than nor worse than the biological route.

After adopting, some parents face judgement over the validity of their parenting and may feel pressure to "prove" themselves causing them to increase their parental involvement. A study, evaluating the importance of biological ties for parental investment indicates strengths in adoptive families. The data was part of a detailed survey called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and the American Educational Research Association. It suggests that parents who've adopted may invest more time in their children than others.

Adoption By Same-Sex Couples

Certain jurisdictions prohibit homosexual individuals and couples from adopting children, or have a policy of considering applications made by heterosexual adopters before those of homosexual adopters.

The issue of adoption by nonheterosexual people is tied in with the debate on homosexuality. Preference to heterosexual couples may be given in the belief that heterosexuals who adopt often have fertility problems and therefore must be given preference on medical grounds. Opponents say this system is untenable in a free society and can leave needy children with limited access to a family structure.

Adoption by individuals in same-sex civil unions or marriages are allowed in Australia (regions: Western Australia, Tasmania, ACT), the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Spain and in the USA (regions: California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, District of Columbia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin).

Only stepchild adoptions within same-sex couples, i.e. where one of the partners in the relationship has children of his or her own, are allowed in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, France and Germany.

Ireland (which does not recognize same-sex unions) does not allow joint applications to adopt from same-sex couples, but does permit applications from one of the partners.

Cost of Adoption

For the adoptive parents, adoption costs and assistance vary between countries. In many countries, it is illegal to charge for an adoption, while in others, adoptions must be facilitated on a non-profit basis. On the other hand many adoption programs will give financial assistance to adopters, especially with their expenses. Some jurisdictions offer tax credits to offset the cost of adoption. In the United States there is a $10,000 tax credit for adoption and adoptions through the child welfare system typically do not cost the adopting family anything beyond minor legal or other types of documented fees. The same is true in Canada.

Regulations specify to whom payments may or may not be made, e.g., in some jurisdictions, no money may be paid to a birth mother above her medical expenses. There may also be significant expenses, such as legal fees and fees associated with searching for possible adoptees.

International adoptions tend to be more expensive and often incur additional costs, as the adoptive parents may be required to travel to the source country. Translation fees may also apply to legal documents.

Adoption Numbers

The number of children available for adoption inside Western nations has dropped considerably in recent years, in part because of lower fertility rates, legalization of abortions, and the increased acceptance of single parenthood. In the USA, the number of children awaiting adoption has dropped from 132,000 to 118,000 during the period 2000 to 2004.