5 Open Adoption Legal Issues Adopting Parents Need To Know

This guest post is by Jay Deratany, an adoption attorney

There was a time not so long ago when adoption laws in the U.S. seemed set in stone. Both parties were sworn to secrecy and future contact was strongly discouraged, if not prohibited entirely.

Called closed adoptions because all records of the arrangement were kept under lock and key, they accounted for 99% of all domestic adoptions just two decades ago.

Today, however, 60 to 70% of domestic adoptions are open, which means birth parents may stay involved in their children’s lives.

This represents a huge shift in mentality about adoption. And many people believe that this sort of arrangement is better for everyone involved. Continue reading →

Birth and Adoptive Parents Share Vulnerability in Open Adoption

This guest post is by Robin A. Fleischner, an adoptive parent and adoption attorney.

Appearing in court with my clients, Dee and Bob, and their 8-month-old prospective adoptive daughter, Marie, a few weeks ago, I was struck by the deep vulnerability adoptive parents and birth parents share.

We were there for a hearing to terminate the parental rights of the child’s birth father. Dee and Bob already felt like Marie’s parents.

They had met her birth mother, been present at their daughter’s birth, and were completely in love with her since bringing Marie home from the hospital. Yet they were terribly anxious that their daughter could be taken from them. Continue reading →