Arguments FOR open adoption?

Question

I'm trying to write an argumentative paper on open vs. closed adoption... finding and thinking of arguments for closed adoption is easy, but what about open adoption?

The only thing I can think of is the fact that it's in human nature to want to know where you come from, etc. Any other suggestions?

Answer 1

My husband was adopted (closed), so I can tell you some of the issues he has struggled with. When we had our kids, the obstetrician always asks for the family history on both sides, but of course, he could not provide any of his. He has had several cardiac health issues himself, and of course they always want to know family health history for that. He has always wondered about siblings. He has always just wanted to know WHY? Why did his mother/parents choose to give him up? He has always wondered about his family lineage. He looks as though he could have some latino or possibly italian ancestry, but who knows????

Answer 2

Adoptees should have open access to medical information. No amount of paperwork done pre-adoption can answer questions that may arise over the post-adoption years. For example, I gave up a daughter for adoption when I was 16. My father died of cancer a year later. There was no way for my daughter to know about the cancer in her family until she found me 17 years later, because we didn't know about it before the adoption happened.

Another thing is that the very first thing my daughter asked me when she found me was "What am I?" I said "A human being." She meant what was her ancestry, Irish or what? She had grown up in a society where people say "Oh, I'm Irish, I'm French, I'm English, I'm African American" and she was NOTHING. She lacked an ancestral identity. It must have really sucked. :\

Answer 3

Open adoption makes the transition for the birth mother easier. It is not easy to give up a child but to be cut completely out of a child's life is very unbearable. With the open adoption you have more mothers that are willing to give a child up to another couple knowing they will not be totally cut off from the child and they can still watch it grow up and be part of the child's life.
Open adoption also makes it easier for the child that is adopted to get the answers to questions they have about why they were given up for adoption.

I wish you the best of luck on your paper.

Answer 4

My mom put my sister up for adoption when she was born. (I didn't know about it, because I was young & living with my dad & stepmom. She & I have different dads.) It was open, because my mom really did love her & wanted to tell her one day why she did it. My mom was really strung out on drugs when it happened & she wanted my sister to have a better life. 2 & 1/2 yrs ago, when my sis turned 18, she found us. Well, she also had some medical problems that came from Mom's side, so her adoptive parents were able to find these things out through open adoption. My sis & mom have a wonderful relationship now & sis has no hard feelings towards her. As a matter of fact, my sis made a scrapbook for mom of her growing up yrs that mom missed!

Answer 5

We have a semi-open adoption. My son's biological parents want nothing to do with him, and from what we know about them, we are okay with that. However, we actually adopted our son from his biological grandparents who had legal custody of him from birth. We chose to have an open adoption with them in the sense that we speak often on the phone and visit with them about once a month. It has been an absolute blessing to have them in our lives. The more people to love a child, the better! Our son is blessed to have THREE sets of grandparents to spoil him. :) And we feel good knowing that when those inevitable adoption questions arise, we will have a wonderful support system with the biological grandparents to help us through.

Good luck with your paper!

Answer 6

Also there may be a time when the child needs to know about his parents medical history for some reason.