Adoption Reform
No sooner were US adoptions made secretive with original birth records sealed, than those adopted began to seek reform. Jean Paton, author of Breaking Silence and founder of Orphan Voyage in 1954, is regarded as the mother of adoption reform and reunification efforts. Jean Paton mentored adoptee Judith Land, "Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child" during her adoption search. Florence Fisher organized The ALMA Society (Adoptees Liberation Movement Association) in 1972, Emma May Vilardi created International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR) in 1975, Lee Campbell and other birthmothers joined the fight for Open Records forming Concerned United Birthparents (CUB) in 1976, and by the spring of 1979 representatives of 32 organizations from 33 states, Canada and Mexico gathered together in DC to establish the American Adoption Congress (AAC). TRIADOPTION® Library began keeping records in 1978 showing 52 search/support/reform organizations, by 1985 there were over 550 worldwide.
Adoption Reform encompasses family preservation, adoptees' access to original birth certificates, birth and adoptive families having direct access to each other (open adoption) and all related records (open records).
The Adoption Triangle by Annette Baran, Reuben Pannor and Arthur Sorosky; Twice Born and Lost and Found by Betty Jean Lifton; I Would Have Searched Forever by Sandra Musser; The Adoption Searchbook: Techniques for Tracing People by Mary Jo Rillera; The Politics of Adoption by Mary Kathleen Benet; all published in the 1970s and still in print, were instrumental in examining and defining the foundation of reform.
As of February 2009, 24 U.S. states have legal provisions for enforceable open adoption contact agreements.. Each year additional states consider law changes that give persons separated by adoption access to information about themselves and each other. State laws
- ISRR - International Soundex Reunion Registry
- TRIADOPTION Archives
- CUB
- AAC
- ALMA
Read more about this topic: Adoption In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words adoption and/or reform:
“Frankly, I adore your catchy slogan, “Adoption, not Abortion,” although no one has been able to figure out, even with expert counseling, how to use adoption as a method of birth control, or at what time of the month it is most effective.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“We must reform society before we can reform ourselves.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)