Adoption in America
Kevin Mattson reviews Adam Pertman’s book Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution Is Transforming America. He has much good to say about recent trends in adoption practices, especially towards openness and honesty with adopted children, including in many cases the practice of open adoption:
Greater openness for adoptees means an upbringing rooted in self-knowledge and truth rather than equivocation or deception; for birth parents, it helps diminish angst and permits grieving, and therefore increases their comfort levels with their decisions; and for adoptive parents, it eases personal insecurities while establishing a steady stream of information for their children and for making critical parenting decisions (based, for example, on the birth family’s medical history).
He also discusses other issues Pertman addresses, such as necessary changes to adoption law, ways that transracial adoption is helping our country to grow in overcoming entrenched racism, and the problem of the cost of adoption.
Mattson recommends this book with the caveat that Pertman doesn’t sufficiently answer all of the important questions that he raises:
Though he doesn’t come up with all the answers to tough questions, Pertman at the least poses them. For anyone interested in adoption (especially those considering adoption), this is an important book to read. Policy makers who need a brief, readable introduction to adoption would do well by picking it up. They won’t find solutions but will be introduced to the ways in which adoption is changing America.