Child Adoption Vs Private Adoption

There are currently 7.5 billion people in the world and of that, about 1.9 billion (27%) are children (World). About 135,000 children are adopted each year and 107,000 are awaiting adoption (Fogle). Adoption is defined as a social and legal process that creates a new family, giving adopted children the same rights and benefits as those born into the family. There are several ways that children get adopted. Children can get adopted publicly or privately and through these two options they can be adopted internationally, across state borders which is usually through foster care. The type of process each child goes through is different depending on the adoptive parents, the birth parents, the location, how old or young the child is and where the …show more content…
In this type of adoption the prospective parents take the steps to find the birth parents. Once found the birth parents give their consent to adoption to the prospective parents. The most common age for this type of adoption is newborn because children that are older are usually placed with an adoption agency. A lot of birth parents that are looking into private adoptions are looking to play an active role in the selection of the adoptive parents, and looking for the child to go directly into the physical custody of the adoptive parents rather than temporary foster care. Some adoptive parents are able to avoid long waiting periods and being able to adopt event without meeting the standards imposed by the agencies. Some of the risks of independent adoption include the amount of time it takes to choose a birth mother, the fact that the outcome is not certain, and the costs. Prospective parents can spend months, even years trying to find the perfect birth mother, but once they find her, they are faced with the fact that the mother can change her mind at any time. This time period and uncertainty sometimes lead prospective parents to give up on adoption all together …show more content…
It is surprising that only 4% of babies born under these circumstances are put up for adoption. It is even more surprising that this percent has been decreasing throughout the years. This decrease may be because of the increased education about ways to prevent pregnancy, and possibly the fact that more and more people are deciding to wait until they are older to start having kids.
In public adoptions, agencies are usually involved and the children are coming from group homes or, more commonly, foster care. Prospective parents are working with the agencies instead of the birth parents and they do not have an adoption attorney to guide them through the process. This type of adoption also takes a longer time to be finalized due to the possibility of the birth parents winning their children back or the amount of time it takes for the parental rights to be