Pro-Adoption Viewpoints:

Open Adoption fills an immediate need for parent and child.

Catherine Johnson wrote:

I agree that many, many young women (my mom included) were brainwashed by clergy....I agree there is always loss in adoption...and I'm sorting through a lot of feelings to understand why my mother was so depressed. It was like my own accomplishments were bittersweet for her because I maybe made her think of her missing daughter. I would LOVE to see your suggestions materialize [under Alternatives to Adoption]--housing and proper care for mother and child, skills training, a social worker to help her with parenting skills....That is a beautiful dream and I pray it comes to pass. But until then, "open adoption" seems to be the only way.

Anti-Adoption Viewpoints:

Open Adoption is a "Catch-22" response to often temporary problems

Lori Carangelo, Americans For Open Records (AmFOR), wrote:

The "Catch-22" of "open adoption" is that even "open" adoptions require "legally" falsified birth records and "open" adoption agreements are unenforceable. Only one state (California) is endeavoring to make "open adoption" agreements "enforceable" under a new law, but all adoptions are based on bad law, if one considers unconstituional law to be "bad law." No other custody form so disrespects the basic human rights of the involved parties, especially the child. In the past decade or so, the promise of varying degrees of "openness" (which, in many cases means an annual letter to the mother from the adopter, via the attroney, regarding the child's progress, with perhaps a photo) has been used by baby brokers to coerce relinquishments from trusting mothers misled to believe they will have an active role in their children's lives, only to discover they were duped. Those who have been a party to a truly "open" adoption, which relies on integrity of the parties, are not typical. The bottom line is that if the parties can get along as "extended family" in an "open" adoption for the sake of the child, they really don't need to transfer "ownership" of the child in the process. In most cases, would-be adopters could instead help the family without permanently taking the child as "their own" through similar agreements that do not require adoption....or through guardianship. Adoption is a form of domestic terrorism.

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