This theme issue deals with adoption. "Adoption in Canada: A Profile," provides statistics on public and private adoption, as well as demographic characteristics on adoption applicants and children placed for adoption. It also discusses current adoption legislation. "Abandoning Ownership: A Philosophical Approach to Adoption"…

Examines adoption issues including family member loss, infertility, transracial adoptions, special-needs adoptions, older child adoption, inherited traits, adoptive family, biological parents, and open adoption. Suggests specific therapeutic interventions including redefinition, use of paradox, family therapy approaches, group therapy, and…

Discusses the results of a survey of 1,268 adoptive parents in California. Found that postplacement contact with biological parents was common in this sample and that adoptive parents, with some exceptions, seemed cautiously comfortable with such contact. (Author/MDM)

Families who adopt children internationally are faced with not only the acknowledgement of the adoption but also the recognition of the child's birth culture. Thirty-four families were surveyed to assess issues regarding the relevance, frequency, and means of acknowledgement of the adoption and of the birth culture. Findings suggest ways adoption…

Discusses motivations behind establishment of National Voluntary Mutual Reunion Registry. Notes that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services facilitates voluntary and mutually requested reunion of 21-year-old adult adopted persons, adult siblings, and birth parents who have on their own initiative indicated desire to make contact.…

A questionnaire and focus groups employed a small sample of adults placed as adoptees in the early 1970s revealed that many were unaware of any openness policy in adoption. When faced with possible birth parent-initiated contact, subjects strongly expressed a need for choice and control and an insistence that the adoption agency retain its role as…

Interviewed five birthmothers using a phenomenological approach. Discovered an additional area of grieving that has been overlooked: the lost dreams and fantasies associated with placing a child for adoption. Explores these dreams in detail and discusses implications for grief work in therapy. (Author/ABL)

Examined the ability of biological and adoptive parents to cooperate in postadoption contact through the use of written contact agreements. Found that, at 4.5 years after adoption, approximately 98% of biological and adoptive parents were complying with the agreements and that nearly 94% were satisfied with the open adoption process. (MDM)

Argues that the purpose of adoption is to find suitable parents for children, not suitable children for prospective parents, and that authorized child welfare agencies, not independent adoption agents, should have the responsibility to protect the best interests of the parties involved in the adoption process. (MDM)

The majority of adoptions in the United States are now arranged independent of adoption agencies, between the biological parents and the adoptive parents themselves. Both systems serve legitimate purposes, and independent adoption can provide both adoptive parents and biological parents with more options than many adoption agencies can supply.…

Birthparents are the least studied, understood and served members of the adoption triad. Birthparents are also often the invisible members of the adoption triad. For some this is by preference, and for others this is an artifact of a system that has traditionally required invisibility. This manuscript briefly reviews the limited and…

Sought to: (1) identify correlates of biological mothers' decisions to retain or relinquish their babies for adoption; and (2) determine the accuracy with which the decision can be predicted. Correlated data on 20 variables for 190 mothers in Hawaii. (SKC)

Describes reasons that adoptees search for their biological parents. Reasons are categorized into search as adventure and search as therapy. The latter is further divided into medical and psychological models. (RJC)

Although the number of nonrelative adoptions is decreasing, stepparent adoptions are not. These adoptions are viewed as nonproblematic family business separate from the general adoption picture. This article examines demographic data in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from 55 stepparent adoptions concerning stepparent adopters, birth parents, and…

Reviews the controversy concerning open versus closed adoption in terms of the consequences for the biological parents, adoptive parents, and adopted child. Arguments are caught up in theoretical dialectics and cannot be resolved without longitudinal research. Concludes with suggestions regarding clinical practice in adoption pending further…