Adoption

Adoption is the act of adopting; being adopted. Adopt is to take into one's family (a child of other parents), especially by a formal legal act. It can also mean the legal act of assuming parenthood of a child who is not one's own.

Public view of adoption

Actors at the Anne of Green Gables Museum on Prince Edward Island, Canada. After it was published in 1908, the story of the orphaned Anne, and how the Cuthberts adopted her, has been widely popular in the English-speaking world. Later, its popularity spread to Asia as well.

In the West, there are some doubts about the strength of family love for an adopted child. Some research by the Evan Donaldson Institute shows more proof of this. Almost one-third of the people questioned believed adopted children were less controlled, more ill, and would easily be addicted to drug and alcohol. Also, 40 – 50 percent thought adoptees would probably have behavior problems at school. But adoptive parents were described by almost 90 percent as “lucky, advantaged, and unselfish”.

Related pages

• Foster care
• Hague Adoption Convention

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