Pros And Cons Of Adoption

The area of adoption law has seen massive growth within the last eighty years, and, like all United States law, it has gone through an extensive process of refining and building upon itself. Adoption law has pursued and created protections for all parties in the adoption process, but it also come at a cost. Created in the 1960s, the ICPC, or the Interstate Compact on Placement of Children, monitors almost all interstate adoptions and is one of the most important regulators of adoption (“Guide to the Interstate Compact on Placement of Children”). While not a federal law, all U.S. states, as well as Washington D.C. and the Virgin Islands, have agreed to comply with the ICPC in pursuit of placing a child with best possible family, even is that

This act was one of the first of its kind; it seeked to “provide financial assistance for a demonstration program for the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect, [and] to establish a National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect,” (“Child Abuse and Treatment Act of 1974”). In other words, government was instructed to begin conducting research into the growing area of child psychology to learn more about the adverse effects of violent home situations (“Major Federal Legislation”). As well, it allocated millions of dollars to implementing programs and models of preventative care for adoptive families and children (“Child Abuse and Treatment Act of 1974”). In fact, it is also responsible for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, which would later become the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, the national center for child abuse prevention and care (“Child Abuse and Neglect”). To this day, the Child Abuse and Treatment Act is still affecting how abuse monitoring and prevention is

For one, adoption is an incredibly lengthy process. The timeframe for domestic adoption can vary from a few months to upwards of seven years (“FAQs”). Meanwhile, international adoption can take even longer. Secondly, the adoption process is remarkably intricate. No regular, untrained person could go through the process alone. Adoption law attorneys are needed to complete the staggering amounts of paperwork and legal obstacles associated with adoption. Perhaps the biggest deterrent from adoption is the price. Families can expect to pay thousands of dollars for adoptions, sometime up to $30,000 or more (“FAQs”). Here again, international adoption is even more costly (“FAQs”). No doubt, such sacrifices make many families debating adoption turn away. The sacrifices that adoption demands are remarkably high; by ensuring children’s safety, it has also reduced the supply of reasonable, loving families who would otherwise be wonderful homes for a child, but cannot sacrifice the time or funds to work through the confusing legal red-tape. The question must be asked if this physically, emotionally, and psychologically draining process really ensures the betterment of children’s living situations when it barrs many families from being able to open up their homes to a new