Surrendering an Infant for Adoption: The Birthmother Experience

Abstract

Abstract In modem Western societies, adoption is currently regarded as an acceptable and sensible solution to a critical problem in the lives of three groups of people-infertile couples, unmarried women facing unexpected pregnancy, and children without families. Since the early 1900s, a variety of human service agencies have been the facilitators and guardians of most adoption proceedings. Implied in the designation of this solemn responsibility is the assumption that these agencies will work to meet the needs of all three groups assigned to their care. However, in an agency-supervised adoption, where three clients are seeking relief from a single service and only one of them is paying a fee, the potential for a conflict of interest has been noted (Benet, 1976; Deykin, Campbell, & Patti, 1984; Vincent, 1961). Specifically, until the recent past, it has been fairly common knowledge that, despite some efforts to the contrary (Child Welfare League of America, 1988; Moore & Burt, 1982; O’Leary, Shore, & Wilder, 1984), a greater commitment of both professional energy and financial resources has been made in the service of a relationship between a child and prospective adoptive parents than in support of a relationship between the same child and his or her biological mother (Bernstein, 1963; Child Welfare League of America, 1960; Kadushin, 1974; Riben, 1988; Sorich & Siebert, 1982).1

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 38 citations exist upstream.