Are there issues that are unique to a specific time or area of adoption?

Jennifer L

Yes, there are separate issues and perspectives based upon different types, areas and times. I really don't expect an adult adoptee that was adopted as an infant to be able to understand what it is like for an older international adoptee that was traumatized during a civil war in her home country and later adopted. Likewise, someone who was a biological mother during the BSE and someone who lost parental rights after years of abusing/neglecting a child. To say that they all fade to insignificance into the larger issue of adoption is absurd. It's like saying that every black person in the entire world needs to not worry about racial issues in their own countries and cultures, but must immediately connect to the civil rights era in the United States.

It's almost like ethnocentrism.

That said, there *are* a few commonalities in all areas of adoption. Sealed records is one. The fact that every adoptee had to lose their first family is another. But I think that the subject of adoption is so broad and so complicated, that very few "broad brush" approaches can be used.

mom lost 66

I believe that the BSE was the worst era of them all the social workers, adoption agency's,
lawyers, and doctors were only interested in getting that child they did not give a dame about the mother
who arms that child was taken from mothers were considered human baby machine with no
regard for our feelings

minimouse68

Of course there are issues unique to a specific era of adoption. Without doubt, those of us adopted during the BSE are going to have different attitudes and feelings towards what was done to us and our mums. No adoptee born after the BSE has to grow up knowing that their first mum was incarcerated in the equivalent of a jail for unwed mothers before having her newborn child ripped from her unwilling arms, that is part of the reality that I live with every day, that I was forcibly removed from my mum for no better reason than that she was young and unmarried. The issues of foster children who have been adopted are not the same as those who were adopted as infants, and shouldnt be part of the same discussion. It frustrates me when those adopted through foster care get angry at those of us who were adopted during the BSE, our situations are and were entirely different......adoption may have been salvation for them, but it certainly wasnt for me, my first mum or my bio siblings. For us it was a nightmare which lasted for 34 years until reunion.
@DE: This question doesnt ask whether adoptive parents can raise and teach a child, I love my adoptive family very much, in fact just prior to reading this question I was on the phone to my adoptive mother, we have a very close relationship. Fact is, while you have adoptive children, and an adopted brother, YOU arent adopted and have NO idea what it feels like.....you simply arent qualified to answer a lot of the questions you drop your 2 cents worth into.....

Vanessa

"I think it's different now because there are more choices. Most birth mothers who place babies choose adoption rather than have their babies taken from them, & they have a say in who the adoptive parents are."

My son would have not been taken from me, Ms. Marnie B. I was conned out of him with the promise of an OPEN adoption.

Rosie

Yes, but where is there a safe respectful place to discuss them?

Marnie B

I think it's different now because there are more choices. Most birth mothers who place babies choose adoption rather than have their babies taken from them, & they have a say in who the adoptive parents are.

Your question is very broad. I don't think my answer will even attempt to answer it but I will say that as far as adoption goes, no matter what the age of the child be it birth or be it older, they should have assess to medical info and a way to contact birth family if they so choose too. I think they should always know that they are adopted but that does not make them any less part of the family that they are part of. A lot of great people came through adoption. A lot of people have benefited from love and guidance that was given to them from people not blood related.

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