Although adoption and fostering informally have taken place for centuries and are closely tied with the legacy of the Roman Empire as well as the Catholic Church, it was only in the 1851 that adoption became legally recognised in the United States. That year, Massachusetts passed the first adoption law that recognized adoption as a legal and social operation, the primary focus of which was child welfare, but not solely adult interests. The 1981 adoption act is considered to be a crucial turning point in the global history of adoption. Since then, more than a million children have been adopted in the United States alone. Initially, however, adoptions were seen as a way to provide security and care for war orphans and children born to unmarried mothers.
Adoption in Ancient Times
In many cases, early adoptions in the Roman Empire involved the aristocracy and adult males. Wealthy families without a legitimate son adopted boys or men to perpetuate the family on the male line and to make sure that the family religious practices continue (Hornblower and Spanforth 1996; Harrison 1968). Later, adoptions by women were permitted to “console them for the loss of children” (Moyle 1912). Some Roman emperors, including Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian were known to be adopted. Child adoptions were also used as a binding basis to strengthen political alliances between families and a form of continuation of political dynasties.
Adoption practiced in the ancient times declined during the Middle Ages, when bloodlines became pre-eminent for heritage. Approximately at this time, the Catholic Church encouraged adoptions with the goal of abandoned children welfare and established treatment standards for these children.
Middle Ages
With the lapse of time, the adoption concepts introduced by Romans migrated to Europe, where they floundred during the 17th century. Adoption survived, especially growing after depopulation that followed the plague epidemic. A form of adoption widely spread at this time involved the use of adoption contracts that were notarized. In France, especially after the revulution, adoption was seen as a way to crash class barriers and Postrevolutionary France saw adoption as a means to break down class barriers and reapport wealth. It was also a great option both for childless couples and orphants. The Napoleonic Code forced limitations with the aim to protect legitimate heirs and marriage. As a result, only couples, who were married, could adopt children (Gager 1996).
Modern Period
The next stage of adoption history is tightly connected with the emerging nation of the United States. Immigration and the American Civil War resulted in an unprecedented number of orphans in the midddle of the 19th century. Charles Loring Brace, a Protestant minister, considered the orphans, especially Catholics, to be among the most dangerous people that challenged the order in New York. As a result, the Orphan Train movement started, which was outlined in The Best Method of Disposing of Our Pauper and Vagrant Children (1859). Eventually, such orphan trains shipped approximately 200,000 children from cities to more rural regions. In many cases, the children were forced to work for their new families as farm laborers or household servants.
This form of “adoption” and such a great degree of exploitation gave rise to a series of laws that promoted adoption agreements rather than force labor and indenture. In 1917, Minnesota passed the first law, which mandated social investigation of all placements and adoptions and provided confidentiality of adoption records.
Approximately at this time, the Progressive movement in the United States evolved to end the prevailing orphanage system.
Adoption Legalization
From the time of the first settlers in the United States, disease, poverty, war, and other tragedies resulted in a great number of orphaned children. Until 1851, informal adoptions were widely spread, where another family would adopt an orphaned child. With the increase of these informal adoptions, people understood that the process of adoption should be legalized.
In 1909, The First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children summoned by Roosevelt declared that poverty should not be the grounds for abandoning children. When children needed placements for other reasons, they had to be placed in family homes that represented “the highest and finest product of civilization”. (E. Wayne Carp, 2004)
By 1923, there were only 2% of children in adoptive homes and by 1965, less than one-third percent were without parental care.
However, eugenic ideas in the United States didn’t allow adoption to grow because many people thought about the genetic quality of adopted children.
Only after World War II adoption began to evolve again. During 1945 and 1974, adoption’s pace grew rapidly and child adoption was seen as a means to build a family. After World War II, illegitimate birth rate grew, as well as the idea of the nurtrure dominance over genetics. This chipped away the eugenic stigmas and adoption became a great solution to both infertile couples and unwed mothers. These trends lead to a new American model of adoption that legitimately made adopters the new parents of their children.
Adoption Formal Procedures
In the early times of the American nation, there were no formal procedures for recording births or changes of names. This greatly facilitated the ability to get adoptive arrangements. In many cases, these informal placements had economical reasons. Families, living in rural regions, needed child labor greatly. With the advent of industrialization, the United States had seen massive immigration to large cites. However, many families couldn’t support their children and this resulted in informal transfer of these children to other families or charitable institutions. As mentioned above, this has lead to the emergence of Orphan Trains.
A different form of adoption was also indentured work, where children were adopted as servants and farm workers and had to work until they became adults.
In 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished indenture. At this time, the Industrial Revolution moved crafts from homes to factories, which also promoted the indenture decline.
With such a great number of informal adoptions, there had been a great need to have a formal process for adoptions.
At this time, two innovations were added to the adoption process:
1) Adoption was focused on the “best interests of the child” rather than the interests of adults. In 1851, Massachusetts introduced the 1st modern adoption law that recognized child welfare as the goal for each adoption rather than adult interests. Early adoption rules didn’t provide confidentiality or records’ maintenance. Since original birth certificates remained unchanged, nothing could prevent their distribution. Neither biological parents, nor adoptive families had legal protection against possible intrusions in each other’s lives after the adoption was complete.
2) In the beginning of the 20th century, the adoption principles began to address the issues of confidentiality and adoption records became confidential. By 1945, adoption and original birth records were sealed. The originator of adoption confidentiality is thought to be Charles Loring Brace, a protestant minister, whose aim was to prevent children from the Orphan Trains from returning to their parents.
In 1853, Charles Loring Brace founded the Children’s Aid Society of New York, the main goal of which was to find homes for the orphans. Brace was afraid of the poverty of the children’s parents, and especially the impact of their Catholic religion on the youth. This is why the records’ secrecy was introduced and carried on by other progressive reformers. Although many adopted children became indentured servants, the Brace’s program was the first foster care system in the United States.
In 1872, New York State Charities Aid Association was established. This association was among the first country’s organization that started a 1898 child-placement program. By 1922, more than 3,300 children found their homes thanks to this program.
In 1898, the New York’s St. Vincent De Paul Society organized the Catholic Home Bureau, the first Catholic agency that allocated children in homes rather than orphanages.
In 1909, at the first White House conference on the Care of Dependent Children, Roosevelt recommended moving toward placing children in family homes rather than allocating them to institutional orphanages. Consequently, many states passed adoption-related laws and in 1917, Minnesota introduced a legislation according to which a child welfare agency must investigate all adoption placements.
During the period from 1910 to 1930, specialized adoption agencies were established. They included such agencies as the Free Synagogue Child Adoption Committee, the Cradle in Evanston, the Alice Chapin Nursery and the Spence Alumni Society.
In 1912, the U.S. Congress founded the Children’s Bureau in the Labor Department. The goal of this bureau was to investigate all the matters related to the welfare of children and their life in the new families.
The time during 1912 and 1921 saw the emergence of commercial maternity homes called Baby Farming that investigated adoption placements in New York, Chicago, Boston, Baltimor and other U.S. cities.
In 1915, Child Welfare League of America was founded and the popularization of the intelligence quotient among the adopted children swept away the eugenics movement popular in the beginning of the century.
By 1917, all adoptions had to pass social investigation and all adoption records got the formal confidentiality status.
In 1919, the U.S. Children’s Bureau introduced minimum standards to place a child in a family. And with the publication of the first child-placing manual by the Russel Sage Foundation, adoptions became even more popular.
In 1934, all children placed for adoption had to pass mental tests. This was the step to prevent unwitted adoption of retarded children and inspired nurture studies at the Iowa Child Welfare Station. These studies eventually promoted policies of early family placement.
In 1935, provision for aid to dependent and crippled children was introduced in the Social Security Act. This resulted in a significant expansion of a child foster care.
The year of 1948 saw the first recorded transracial adoption that took place in Minnesota, where white parents adopted an African-American child.
In 1953, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws first proposed the Uniform Adoption Act. At this year, Jean Paton, the founder of renuification efforts and adoption reform, founded the first adoptee search and support network called Orphan Voyage.
In the period between 1953 and 1958, the National Urban League Foster Care and Adoptions Project undertook the first national effort to find homes for African-American children.
At the national conference on adoption that took place in 1955 in Chicago, Child Welfare League of America declared the beginning of the era of special needs adoption. At this time, senators Kefauver and Edward Thye proposed a federal law on black market adoptions, however this law had never passed the Congress. In this year, Bertha and Harry Holt, an evangelical couple from Oregon, adopted 8 Korean orphans after the Congress passed a special act allowing this adoption.
In the mid-1955, the National Urgan League founded Adopt-A-Child agency that promoted African-American adoptions.
In 1958, Indian Adoption Project was introduced. 395 Indian children were adopted through this project by the end of 1967.
In 1959, the UN Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Child that was endorsed by Golden White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1960.
In 1961, the Immigration and Nationality Act was introduced. According to this act, international adoptions of children born outside the United States were allowed.
In 1970, the number of adoptions in the U.S. peaked and eventually declined. It is still uncertain what caused the decline.
Contemporary Adoption
The current adoption practices have been influenced greatly by the 1960’s and 1970’s revolutions, which included:
- The Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978
- Women’s liberation movements, civil rights, sexual revolution and birth farther’s rights.
- The legalization of abortion, which gave women the option whether or not to leave the unplanned child.
- With the promotion of birth control methods, the number of unplanned pregnancies decreased
- Single parenthood legalization allowed women to choose whether to raise the child alone or place it for adoption. Unmarried women were provided with welfare aids and were relieved from household taxes, as well as were provided with better job opportunities.
- Social workers helped adoptive parents cope with the difficulties in raising adopted children and understand the differences between raising birth and adopted children.
- Adoptive parents wanted more information on their adopted children.
The legal process of adoption
Adoption is a legal procedure that presumes the transfer of all parental responsibility for a child. An adopted child doesn’t have legal connections with his/her birth parents. It becomes a full member of the new family and in most cases takes on their surname.
Most children that can be adopted are under a local authority care, which can be either with foster parents or in an orphanage. There are cases when step-parents adopt children from the previous marriage. People also can adopt the child or children of a close relative.
Strict Conditions
Agencies, such as MyAdoptionAgencies.com and aactofloveadoptions.com have strict assessment conditions for prospective adoptive parents. Most agencies allow married couples only, who can prove they cannot have children of their own. Others accept divorced or single people, usually between 35 and 40.
During their decisions making, adoption agencies are required to consider the child’s religion, racial origin and cultural background.
In 1998, the U.S. government declared new adoption guidelines that emphasize the benefits of adoption and are more flexible in the selection procedures. Children cannot be denied adoptive parents only because of their racial or cultural background or some bad habits such as smoking. The government also reduced the length of time needed for a child to join an adoptive family.
According to the recent 2010 reports, more than 800,000 children pass through the foster care system in the United States each year.