Between Sorrow and Happy Endings: A New Paradigm of Adoption

Abstract

My interest in the subject of adoption and in the position of the birth mother who surrenders a child is a personal one: I am a birth mother. In the interest of explaining my perspective on these questions, and also in the belief that as a society we suffer from an enormous lack of insight into the position of the birth mother, I will begin with the story of my own experience of the adoption process. It was not a particularly bad experience; in fact my impression is that it was more positive than is the average. Nevertheless I will go into some detail because I believe it is important to articulate and understand the complexities of a birth mother's motivations and the pressures she may be facing. Only then will we be able to see clearly how the law can best respond to the needs of all the parties to an adoption proceeding.