Volume : 1, Issue : 6, November - 2012

Inter–Country Adoption–Myth and Reality

Dr. Sonia Dutt Sharma

Abstract :

Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than the birth or "biological" mother or father. An adoption order has the effect of severing the parental responsibilities and rights of the birth parents and transferring those responsibilities and rights to the adoptive parents. Adoption can be defined as the statutory process of terminating a childs legal rights and duties towards the natural parents and substituting similar rights and duties towards adoptive parents. Thus after the finalization of an adoption, there is no legal difference between adopted children and those born to the parents. Adoptions can and have been arranged to allow ongoing contact between the parties involved. The arrangements are referred to in popular culture as either "open, semi–open, or closed adoption.